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Richard IL 



By JACOB ABBOTT 



n 



WITH ENGRAVINGS 




NEW YORK AND LONDON 

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

1900 



Da 236 

•A 3*j- 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight 
hundred and fifty-eight, by 

HARPER & BROTHERS, 

in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District ol 
New York. 



Copyright, 1886, by Benjamin Vaughan Abbott, Austin Abbott, 
Lyman Abbott, and Edward Abbott. 



SOURCE UNKNOWN 

1 7 1345 



PREFACE. 



King Eichakd the Second lived in the 
days when the chivalry of feudal times was in 
all its glory. His father, the Black Prince ; his 
uncles, the sons of Edward the Third, and his 
ancestors in a long line, extending back to the 
days of Richard the First, were among the most 
illustrious knights of Europe in those days, and 
their history abounds in the wonderful exploits, 
the narrow escapes, and the romantic adven- 
tures, for which the knights errant of the Mid- 
dle Ages were so renowned. This volume takes 
up the story of English history at the death of 
Richard the First, and continues it to the time 
of the deposition and death of Richard the Sec- 
ond, with a view of presenting as complete a 
picture as is possible, within such limits, of the 
ideas and principles, the manners and customs, 
and the extraordinary military undertakings 
and exploits of that wonderful age. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter Pftge 

I. Richard's predecessors 13 

ii. quarrels 37 

III. THE BLACK PRINCE 81 

IV. THE BATTLE OF POICTIERS 103 

V. CHILDHOOD OF' RICHARD 146 

VI. ACCESSION TO THE THRONE 166 

VII. THE CORONATION 185 

VIII. CHIVALRY 197 

ix. wat tyler's insurrection 225 

X. THE END OF THE INSURRECTION 255 

XI. GOOD QUEEN ANNE 273 

XII. INCIDENTS OF THE REIGN 290 

XIII. THE LITTLE QUEEN 310 

xiv. Richard's deposition and death 324 



ENGRAVINGS. 



Page 
PARLEY WITH THE INSURGENTS Frontispiece. 

ruins of an ancient castle 15 

map situation of normandy 23 

king john 29 

caernarvon castle 51 

portrait of edward the second 55 

warwick castle 61 

kenilworth castle 66 

a monk of those days 69 

berkeley castle 71 

caves in the hill-side at nottingham castle. 75 

Mortimer's hole 79 

map campaign of crecy 85 

view of rouen 87 

genoese archer 94 

old english ships 105 

map campaign of poictiers 110 

storming of the castle of romorantin 116 

richard receiving the visit of his uncle john. 152 

portrait of richard's grandfather 165 

kdward, the black prince 169 



xii Engravings. 

THE BULL 177 

STORMING OF A TOWN 205 

KNIGHTS CHARGING UPON EACH OTHER 220 

VIEW OF THE TOWER OF LONDON 235 

THE SAVOY 248 

RUINS OF THE SAVOY 252 

COSTUMES 282 

FASHIONABLE HEAD-DRESSES 283 

SEAL OF RICHARD II 300 

HENRY OF BOLINGBROKE KING HENRY IV 340 

PONTEFRACT CASTLE - 342 



KING RICHARD II. 

Chapter I. 
Kichard's Predecessors. 



Three Richards. Richard the Crusader. 



THERE have been three monarchs of the 
name of Richard upon the English throne. 

Richard I. is known and celebrated in his- 
tory as Richard the Crusader. He was the sov- 
ereign ruler not only of England, but of all the 
Norman part of France, and from both of his 
dominions he raised a vast army, and went with 
it to the Holy Land, where he fought many 
years against the Saracens with a view of rescu- 
ing Jerusalem and the other holy places there 
from the dominion of unbelievers. He met with 
a great many remarkable adventures in going 
to the Holy Land, and with still more remarka- 
ble ones on his return home, all of which are 
fully related in the volume of this series entitled 
King Richard I. 

Richard II. did not succeed Richard I. imme- 
diately. Several reigns intervened. The mon- 
arch who immediately succeeded Richard I. was 



14 King Richard II. 

King John. Character of the kings and nobles of those days. 

John. John was Richard's brother, and had 
been left in command, in England, as regent, 
during the king's absence in the Holy Land. 

After John came Henry III. and the three 
Edwards ; and when the third Edward died, his 
son Eichard II. was heir to the throne. He 
was, however, too young at that time to reign, 
for he was only ten years old. 

The kings in these days were wild and turbu- 
lent men, always engaged in wars with each 
other and with their nobles, while all the indus- 
trial classes were greatly depressed. The no- 
bles lived in strong castles in various places 
about the country, and owned, or claimed to 
own, very large estates, which the laboring men 
were compelled to cultivate for them. Some 
of these castles still remain in a habitable state, 
but most of them are now in ruins— and very 
curious objects the ruins are to see. 

The kings held their kingdoms very much 
as the nobles did their estates — they consider- 
ed them theirs by right. And the people gen- 
erally thought so too. The king had a right, 
as they imagined, to live in luxury and splen- 
dor, and to lord it over the country, and com- 
pel the mass of the people to pay him nearly 
all their earnings in rent and taxes, and to raise 
armies, whenever he commanded them, to go 




[lllli-!ill!lllll!!l "i'l.iiini i 



Richard's Predecessors. 17 

Origin and nature of their power. 

and fight for kirn in his quarrels with his neigh- 
bors, because his father had done these things 
before him. And what right had his father to 
do these things ? Why, because his father had 
done them before him. Very well ; but to go 
back to the beginning. What right had the 
first man to assume this power, and how did he 
get possession of it ? This was a question that 
nobody could answer, for nobody knew then, 
and nobody knows now, who were the original 
founders of these noble families, or by what 
means they first came into power. People did 
not know how to read and write in the days 
when kings first began to reign, and so no rec- 
ords were made, and no accounts kept of public 
transactions ; and when at length the coun- 
tries of Europe in the Middle Ages began to 
emerge somewhat into the light of civilization, 
these royal and noble families were found every 
where established. The whole territory of Eu- 
rope was divided into a great number of king- 
doms, principalities, dukedoms, and other such 
sovereignties, over each of which some ancient 
family was established in supreme and almost 
despotic power. Nobody knew how they orig- 
inally came by their power. 

The people generally submitted to this power 
very willingly. In the first place, they had a 

B 



18 King Richard II. 

Natural rights of man in respect to the fruits of the earth. 

sort of blind veneration for it on account of its 
ancient and established character. Then they 
were always taught from infancy that kings had 
a right to reign, and nobles a right to their es- 
tates, and that to toil all their lives, and allow 
their kings and nobles to take, in rent and tax- 
es, and in other such ways, every thing that 
they, the people, earned, except what was barely 
sufficient for their subsistence, was an obligation 
which the Glod of nature had imposed upon 
them, and that it would be a sin in them not to 
submit to it; whereas nothing can be more 
plain than that the Grod of nature intends the 
earth for man, and that consequently society 
ought to be so organized that in each genera- 
tion every man can enjoy something at least 
like his fair share of the products of it, in pro- 
portion to the degree of industry or skill which 
he brings to bear upon the work of developing 
these products. 

There was another consideration which made 
the common people more inclined to submit to 
these hereditary kings and nobles than we should 
have supposed they would have been, and that 
is, the government which they exercised was 
really, in many respects, of great benefit to the 
community. They preserved order as far as 
they could, and punished crimes. If bands of 



Richard's Predecessors. 19 

Beneficial results of royal rule. 

robbers were formed, the nobles or the king sent 
out a troop to put them down. If a thief broko 
into a house and stole what he found there, 
the government sent officers to pursue and ar- 
rest him, and then shut him up in jail. If a 
murder was committed, they would seize the 
murderer and hang him. It was their interest 
to do this, for if they allowed the people to be 
robbed and plundered, or to live all the time in 
fear of violence, then it is plain that the culti- 
vation of the earth could not go on, and the 
rents and the taxes could not be paid. So these 
governments established courts, and made laws, 
and appointed officers to execute them, in order 
to protect the lives and property of their sub- 
jects from all common thieves and murderers, 
and the people were taught to believe that there 
was no other way by which their protection 
could be secured except by the power of the 
kings. We must be contented as we are, they 
said to themselves, and be willing to go and 
fight the king's battles, and to pay to him and 
to the nobles nearly every thing that we can 
earn, or else society will be thrown into confu- 
sion, and the whole land will be full of thieves 
and murderers. 

In the present age of the world, means have 
been devised by which, in any country suffi- 



20 King Richard II. 

The power of kings and nobles was restricted. 

ciently enlightened for this purpose, the people 
themselves can organize a government to re- 
strain and punish robbers and murderers, and 
to make and execute all other necessary laws 
for the promotion of the general welfare ; but 
in those ancient times this was seldom or never 
done. The art of government was not then un- 
derstood. It is very imperfectly understood at 
the present day, but in those days it was not 
understood at all ; and, accordingly, there was 
nothing better for the people to do than to sub- 
mit to, and not only to submit to, but to main- 
tain with all their power the government of 
these hereditary kings and nobles. 

It must not be supposed, however, that the 
power of these hereditary nobles was absolute. 
It was very far from being absolute. It was re- 
stricted and curtailed by the ancient customs 
and laws of the realm, which customs and laws 
the kings and nobles could not transgress with- 
out producing insurrections and rebellions. 
Their own right to the power which they wield- 
ed rested solely on ancient customs, and, of 
course, the restrictions on these rights, which 
had come down by custom from ancient times, 
were as valid as the rights themselves. 

Notwithstanding this, the kings were contin- 
ually overstepping the limits of their power, 



Richard's Predecessors. 21 

Disputes about the right of succession. 

and insurrections and civil wars were all the 
time breaking out, in consequence of which the 
realms over which they reigned were kept in a 
perpetual state of turmoil. These wars arose 
sometimes from the contests of different claim- 
ants to the crown. If a king died, leaving only 
a son too young to rule, one of his brothers, 
perhaps — an uncle of the young prince — would 
attempt to seize the throne, under one pretext 
or another, and then the nobles and the cour- 
tiers would take sides, some in favor of the 
nephew and some in favor of the uncle, and a 
long civil war would perhaps ensue. This was 
the case immediately after the death of Rich- 
ard I. When he died he designated as his suc- 
cessor a nephew of his, who was at that time 
only twelve years old. The name of this young 
prince was Arthur. He was the son of Geof- 
frey, a brother of Richard's, older than John, 
and he was accordingly the rightful heir ; but 
John, having been once installed in power by 
his brother — for his brother had made him re- 
gent when he went away on his crusade to the 
Holy Land — determined that he would seize 
the crown himself, and exclude his nephew 
from the succession. 

So he caused himself to be proclaimed king. 
He was in Normandy at the time ; but he im- 



22 King Bichard II. 

Case of young Arthur. The King of France becomes his ally. 

mediately put himself at the head of an armed 
force and went to England. 

The barons of the kingdom immediately re- 
solved to resist him, and to maintain the cause 
of the young Arthur. They said that Arthur 
was the rightful king, and that John was only 
a usurper ; so they withdrew, every man to his 
castle, and fortified themselves there. 

In cases like this, where in any kingdom 
there were two contested claims for the throne, 
the kings of the neighboring countries usually 
came in and took part in the quarrel. They 
thought that by taking sides with one of the 
claimants, and aiding him to get possession of 
the throne, they should gain an influence in the 
kingdom which they might afterward turn to 
account for themselves. The King of France 
at this time was named Philip. He determined 
to espouse the cause of young Arthur in this 
quarrel. His motive for doing this was to have 
a pretext for making war upon John, and, in 
the war, of conquering some portion of Nor- 
mandy and annexing it to his own dominions. 

So he invited Arthur to come to his court, 
and when he arrived there he asked him if he 
would not like to be King of England. Arthur 
said that he should like to be a king very much 
indeed. "Well," said Philip, "I will furnish 



Richard's Predecessors. 



23 



Map showing the situation of Normandy. 



you with an army, and yon shall go and make 
war upon John. I will go too, with another 
army ; then, whatever I shall take away from 
John in Normandy shall be mine, but all of 
England shall be yours." 

The situation of the country of Normandy, 
in relation to France and to England, may be 
seen by the accompanying map. 




SITUATION OF NOBMAMJY, 



24 King Kichard II. 

Arthur is defeated and made prisoner. 

Philip thought that he could easily seize a 
large part of Normandy and annex it to his do- 
minions while John was engaged in defending 
himself against Arthur in England. 

Arthur, who was at this time only about 
fourteen years old, was, of course, too young to 
exercise any judgment in respect to such ques- 
tions as these, so he readily agreed to what 
Philip proposed, and very soon afterward Philip 
assembled an army, and, placing Arthur nom- 
inally at the head of it, he sent him forth into 
Normandy to commence the war upon John. 
Of course, Arthur was only nominally at the 
head of the army. There were old and expe- 
rienced generals who really had the command, 
though they did every thing in Arthur's name. 

A long war ensued, but in the end Arthur's 
army was defeated, and Arthur himself was 
made prisoner. John and his savage soldiery 
got possession of the town where Arthur was 
in the night, and they seized the poor boy in 
his bed. The soldiers took him away with a 
troop of horse, and shut him. up in a dungeon 
in a famous castle called the castle of Falaise. 
You will see the position of Falaise on the map. 

After a while John determined to visit Ar- 
thur in his prison, in order to see if he could 
not make some terms with him. To accom- 



Kichard's Predecessors. 25 

John attempts to induce Arthur to abdicate. 

plish his purpose more effectually, lie waited 
some time, till he thought the poor boy's spirit 
must be broken down by his confinement and 
his sufferings. His design was probably to 
make terms with him by offering him his lib- 
erty, and perhaps some rich estate, if he would 
only give up his claims to the crown and ac- 
knowledge John as king; but he found that 
Arthur, young as he was, and helpless as was 
his condition in his lonely dungeon, remained 
in heart entirely unsubdued. All that he would 
say in answer to John's proposal was, " Give 
me back my kingdom." At length, John, find- 
ing that he could not induce the prince to give 
up his claims, went away in a rage, and determ- 
ined to kill him. If Arthur were dead, there 
would then, he thought, be no farther difficulty, 
for all acknowledged that after Arthur he him- 
self was the next heir. 

There was another way, too, by which John 
might become the rightful heir to the crown. 
It was a prevalent idea in those days that no 
person who was blind, or deaf, or dumb could 
inherit a crown. To blind young Arthur, then, 
would be as effectual a means of extinguishing 
his claims as to kill him, and John accordingly 
determined to destroy the young prince's right 
to the succession by putting out his eyes ; so 



26 King Richard II. 

Account of the assassination of Arthur. 

he sent two executioners to perform this cruel 
deed upon the captive in his dungeon. 

The name of the governor of the castle was 
Hubert. He was a kind and humane man, 
and he pitied his unhappy prisoner; and so, 
when the executioners came, and Hubert went 
to the cell to tell Arthur that they had come, 
and what they had come for, Arthur fell on his 
knees before him and began to beg for mercy, 
crying out, Save me ! oh, save me ! with such 
piteous cries that Hubert's heart was moved 
with compassion, and he concluded that he 
would put off the execution of the dreadful 
deed till he could see the king again. 

John was very angry when he found that his 
orders had not been obeyed, and he immediately 
determined to send Arthur to another prison, 
which was in the town of Rouen, the keeper 
of which he knew to be an unscrupulous and 
merciless man. This was done, and soon after- 
ward it was given out through all the kingdom 
that Arthur was dead. Every body was con- 
vinced that John had caused him to be murder- 
ed. There were several different rumors in re- 
spect to the way in which the deed was done. 
One story was that John, being at Rouen, where 
Arthur was imprisoned, after having become 
excited with the wine which he had drunk at a 



Richard's Predecessors. 27 

Various accounts of the mode of Arthur's death. 

carousal, went and killed Arthur himself with 
hi, a own hand, and that he then ordered his body 
to be thrown into the Seine, with heavy stones 
tied to the feet to make it sink. The body, 
however, afterward, they said, rose to the sur- 
face and floated to the shore, where some monks 
found it, and buried it secretly in their abbey. 

Another story was that John pretended to be 
reconciled to Arthur, and took him out one day 
to ride with him, with other horsemen. Pres- 
ently John rode on with Arthur in advance of 
the party, until late in the evening they came 
to a solitary place where there was a high cliff 
overhanging the sea. Here John drew his 
sword, and, riding up to Arthur, suddenly ran 
him through the body. Arthur cried aloud, 
and begged for mercy as he fell from his horse 
to the ground ; but John dragged him to the 
edge of the precipice, and threw him over into 
the sea while he was yet alive and breathing. 

A third story was that John had determined 
that Arthur must die, and that he came himself 
one night to the castle where Arthur was con- 
fined in Rouen on the Seine. A man went up 
to Arthur's room, and, waking him from his 
sleep, directed him to rise. 

" Rise," said he, " and come with me." 

Arthur rose, and followed his guard with fear 



28 King Eichard II. 

Uncertainty in respect to these stories. 

and trembling. They descended the staircase 
to the foot of the tower, where there was a por- 
tal that opened close upon the river. On going 
out, Arthur found that there was a boat there 
at the stairs, with his uncle and some other men 
in it. Arthur at once understood what these 
things meant, and was greatly terrified. He 
fell on his knees, and begged his uncle to spare 
his life ; but John gave a sign, and Arthur was 
stabbed, and then taken out a little way and 
thrown into the river. Some say that John 
killed him and threw him into the river with 
his own hand. 

Which of these tales is true, if either of them 
is so, can now probably never be known. All 
that is certain is that John in some way or other 
caused Arthur to be murdered in order to re- 
move him out of the way. He j ustified his claim 
to the crown by pretending that King Eich- 
ard, his brother, on his death-bed, bequeath- 
ed the kingdom to him, but this nobody be- 
lieves. 

At any rate, John obtained possession of the 
crown, and he reigned many years. His reign, 
however, was a very troubled one. His title, 
indeed, after Arthur's death, was no longer dis- 
puted, but he was greatly abhorred and hated 
for his cruelties and crimes, and at length near- 



Richard's Predecessors. 29 



Portrait of King John. 



League formed against him by his barons. 




KING JOHN. 



\j all the barons of his realm banded them- 
selves together against him, with the view of re- 
ducing his power as king within more reasona- 
ble bounds. 

The king fought these rebels, as he called them, 
for some time, but he was continually beaten, 
and finally compelled to yield to them. They 
wrote out their demands in a full and formal 
manner upon parchment, and compelled the 
king to sign it. This document was called the 



30 King Eichard II. 

Magna Charta. Kunny Mead. The agreement afterward repudiated. 

Magna Charta, which means the great char- 
ter. The signing and delivering this deed is 
considered one of the most important events in 
English history. It was the first great covenant 
that was made between the kings and the peo- 
ple of England, and the stipulations of it have 
been considered binding to this day, so that it 
is, in some sense, the original basis and founda- 
tion of the civil rights which the British people 
now enjoy. 

The place of assembly where King John came 
out to sign this covenant was a broad and beau- 
tiful meadow on the banks of the Thames, not 
far from Windsor Castle. The name of the field 
is Eunny Mead. The word mead is a contrac- 
tion for meadow. 

The act of once signing such a compact as 
this was, however, not sufficient, it seems, to bind 
the English kings. There were a great many 
disputes and contests about it afterward between 
the kings and the barons, as the kings, one aft- 
er another, refused to adhere to the agreement 
made by John in their name, on the ground, 
perhaps, of the deed not being a voluntary one 
on his part. He was forced to sign it, they said, 
because the barons were stronger than he was. 
Of course, when the kings thought that they, in 
their turn, were stronger than the barons, they 



Richard's Predecessors. 31 

New wars. New ratifications of Magna Charta. 

were very apt to violate the agreement. One 
of the kings on one occasion obtained a dispen- 
sation from the Pope, absolving him from all 
obligation to fulfill this compact. 

In consequence of this want of good faith on 
the part of the kings, there arose continually 
new quarrels, and sometimes new civil wars, 
between the kings and the barons. In these 
contests the barons were usually successful in 
the end, and then they always insisted on the 
vanquished monarch's ratifying or signing the 
Magna Charta anew. It is said that in this 
way it was confirmed and re-established not less 
than thirty times in the course of four or five 
reigns, and thus it became at last the settled 
and unquestioned law of the land. The power 
of the kings of England has been restricted 
and controlled by its provisions ever since. 

All this took place in the reigns preceding 
the accession of Richard II. 

Besides these contests with the barons, the 
kings of those times were often engaged in con- 
tentions with the people ; but the people, hav- 
ing no means of combining together or other- 
wise organizing their resistance, were almost 
always compelled to submit. They were often 
oppressed and maltreated in the most cruel 
manner. The great object of the government 



32 Ring Bichard II. 

Cruelties and oppressions practiced upon the Jews. 

seems to have been to extort money from them 
in every possible way, and to this end taxes 
and imposts were levied upon them to such an 
extent as to leave them enough only for bare 
subsistence. The most cruel means were often 
resorted to to compel the payment of these 
taxes. The unhappy Jews were the special 
subjects of these extortions. The Jews in Eu- 
rope were at this time generally excluded from 
almost every kind of business except buying 
and selling movable property, and lending 
money ; but by these means many of them be- 
came very rich, and their property was of such 
a nature that it could be easily concealed. This 
led to a great many cases of cruelty in the treat- 
ment of them by the government. The gov- 
ernment pretended often that they were richer 
than they really were, while they themselves 
pretended that they were poorer than they 
were, and the government resorted to the most 
lawless and atrocious measures sometimes to 
compel them to pay. The following extract 
from one of the historians of the time gives an 
example of this cruelty, and, at the same time, 
furnishes the reader with a specimen of the 
quaint and curious style of composition and or- 
thography in which the chronicles of those 
days are written. 



Richard's Predecessors. 33 

Extract from the old chronicles. Absurd accusations. 

JFurtfiermore, about tfie same time, tfie ftfnfl tareli tfie 
Vetoes, antt jjreeuousife tormenteti anti emprfsoneti tfiem 
fcfcause Tubers of tfjcm tooulti not tofllfnfllfe pan tfie 
summes tfiat tfieg mere taretj at. 0monflst otfier, tfiere 
toas one of tfiem at 3£rfstoto tofio tooulti not consent to 
flfbe ann fine for fifs Uelfberanee ; tofieref ore fin tfte ftfnfl's 
commandment fie teas put bnto tfifs penance, namelg, 
tfiat eurfe fcafe, till fie toouttj agree to flfbe to tfte ftfnfl 
tfiose ten tfiousanti marfts tfiat fie uias sfejctr at, fie tooultt 
fiaue one of fits teetfi plucfcetr out of fits fieati. 3Sn tfie 
space of seaun tiates tojjftfier fie stooti steTifast, losfnfl 
euerte of tfiose Trans a tootfi. 3Sut on tfie efflfitfi Sag, tofien 
fie sfiulD come to fiaue tfie etflfitfi tootfi, anfc tfie last (for 
fie fiati out etflfit in all), Tiraun out, fie pafti tfie monfe to 
saue tfiat, tofio toftfi more tofseTiome antJ less pafne mfflfit 
fiaue Tione so fiefore, anU so fiaue sabeti fits seuen teetfi 
tofifcfi fie lost tottfe sucfi torments; for tfiose fiomelte 
tootfitJrauers bsetr no flreat cunntnfl (n pibcftfnfl tfiera 
fortfi, as man fie confectureti 

The poor Jews were entirely at the mercy 
of the king in these cases, for they were so 
much hated and despised by the Christian peo- 
ple of the land that nobody was disposed to de- 
fend them, either by word or deed, whatever 
injustice or cruelty they might suffer. The 
most absurd and injurious charges were made 
against them by common rumor, and were gen- 
erally believed, for there was nobody to defend 
them. There was a story, for example, that 
they were accustomed every year to crucify a 
Christian child. One year a mother, having 

C 



34 King Richard II. 

The story of the crucified child. John Lexinton. 

missed her child, searched every where for him, 
and at length found him dead in the bottom of 
a well. It was recollected that a short time be- 
fore the child disappeared he had been seen 
playing with some Jewish children before the 
door of a house where a certain Jew lived, call- 
ed John Lexinton. The story was immediate- 
ly circulated that this child had been taken by 
the Jews and crucified. It was supposed, of 
course, that John Lexinton was intimately con 
nected with the crime. He was immediately 
seized by the officers, and he was so terrified by 
their threats and denunciations that he prom- 
ised to confess every thing if they would spare 
his life. This they engaged to do, and he ac- 
cordingly made what he called his confession. 
In consequence of this confession a hundred 
and two Jews were apprehended, and carried to 
London and shut up in the Tower. 

But, notwithstanding the confession that John 
Lexinton had made and the promise that was 
given him, it was determined that he should not 
be spared, but should die. Upon hearing this 
he was greatly distressed, and he offered to 
make more confessions ; so he revealed several 
additional particulars in regard to the crime, 
and implicated numerous other persons in the 
commission of it. All was, however, of no 



Richard's Predecessors. 35 

Confessions extorted by torture. Injustice and cruelty of the practice. 

avail. He was executed, and eighteen other 
Jews with him. 

Judging from the evidence which we have 
in this case, it is highly probable that the al- 
leged crime was wholly imaginary. Confes- 
sions that are extorted by pain or fear are never 
to be believed. They may be true, but they 
are far more likely to be false. It was the cus- 
tom in ancient times, and it still remains the 
custom among many ignorant and barbarous 
nations, to put persons to torture in order to 
compel them to confess crimes of which they 
are suspected, or to reveal the names of their 
accomplices, but nothing can be more cruel or 
unjust than such a practice as this. Most men, 
in such cases, are so maddened with their agony 
and terror that they will say any thing what- 
ever that they think will induce their torment- 
ors to put an end to their sufferings. 

The common people could not often resist 
the acts of oppression which they suffered from 
their rulers, for they had no power, and they 
could not combine together extensively enough 
to create a power, and so they were easily kept 
in subjection. 

The nobles, however, were much less afraid 
of the monarchs, and often resisted them and 
bid them defiance. It was the law in those 



S6 King Eiohard II 

Anecdotes of the nobles and the king. 

days that all estates to which no other person 
had a legal claim escheated, as they called it, to 
the king. Of course, if the king could find an 
estate in which there was any flaw in the title 
of the man who held it, he would claim it for 
his own. At one time a king asked a certain 
baron to show him the title to his estate. He 
was intending to examine it, to see if there was 
any flaw in it. The baron, instead of producing 
his parchment, drew his sword and held it out 
before the king. 

"This is my title to my estate," said he. 
"Your majesty will remember that William 
of Normandy did not conquer this realm for 
himself alone." 

At another time a king wished to send two 
of his earls out of the country on some military 
expedition where they did not wish to go. 
They accordingly declined the undertaking. 

"By the Almighty," said the king, "you 
shall either go or hang." 

" By the Almighty," replied one of the earls, 
" we will neither go nor hang." 

The nobles also often formed extensive and 
powerful combinations among each other against 
the king, and in such cases they were almost 
always successful in bringing him to submit 
to their demands. 



Quarrels. 37 

Classes of quarrels in which the kings and the people were engaged. 



I 



Chapter II. 

Quarrels. 

N the days of the predecessors of King Rich- 
ard the Second, notwithstanding the claim 
made by the kings of a right on their part to 
reign on account of the influence exercised by 
their government in promoting law and order 
throughout the community, the country was re- 
ally kept in a continual state of turmoil by the 
quarrels which the different parties concerned 
in this government were engaged in with each 
other and with surrounding nations. These 
quarrels were of various kinds. 

1. The kings, as we have already seen, were 
perpetually quarreling with the nobles. 

2. The different branches of the royal family 
were often engaged in bitter and cruel wars 
with each other, arising from their conflicting 
claims to the crown. 

3. The kings of different countries were con- 
tinually making forays into each other's terri- 
tories, or waging war against each other with 
fire and sword. These wars arose sometimes 
from a lawless spirit of depredation, and some- 



38 King Richard II. 

The Pope. His claim of jurisdiction in England. 

times were waged to resent personal insults or 
injuries, real or imaginary. 

4. The Pope of Eome, who claimed jurisdic- 
tion over the Ohurch in England as well as else- 
where, was constantly coming into collision with 
the civil power. 

From some one or other of these several 
causes, the kingdom of England, in the time of 
Eichard's predecessors, was seldom at peace. 
Some great quarrel or other was continually 
going on. There was a great deal of difficulty 
during the reigns that immediately preceded 
that of Kichard the Second between the kings 
and the Pope. The Pope, as has already been 
remarked, was considered the head of the whole 
Christian Church, and he claimed rights in re- 
spect to the appointment of the archbishops, and 
bishops, and other ecclesiastics in England, and 
in respect to the government and control of the 
monasteries, and the abbeys, and to the appro- 
priation and expenditure of the revenues of the 
Church, which sometimes interfered very seri- 
ously with the views and designs of the king. 
Hence there arose continual disputes and quar- 
rels. The Pope never came himself to England, 
but he often sent a grand embassador, called a 
legate, who traveled with great pomp and pa- 
rade, and with many attendants, and assumed 



Quarrels. 39 

The Pope' 8 legate and the students at Oxford. 

in all his doings a most lofty and superior air. 
In the contests in which these legates were en- 
gaged with the kings, the legates almost always 
came off conquerors through the immense influ- 
ence which the Pope exercised over the con- 
sciences and religious fears of the mass of the 
people. 

Sometimes the visits of the legates and their 
proceedings among the people led to open broils. 
At one time, for instance, the legate was at Ox- 
ford, where the great University, now so renown- 
ed throughout the world, already existed. He 
was lodged at an abbey there, and some of the 
scholars of the University wishing to pay their 
respects to him, as they said, went in a body to 
the gates of the abbey and demanded admission ; 
but the porter kept them back and refused to 
let them in. Upon this a great noise and tu- 
mult arose, the students pressing against the 
gates to get in, and the porter, assisted by the 
legate's men, whom he called to his assistance, 
resisting them. 

In the course of the fray one or two of the 
students succeeded in forcing their way in as 
far as to the kitchen of the abbey, and there one 
of them called upon a cook to help them. But 
the cook, instead of helping them, dipped out a 
ladle full of hot broth from a kettle and threw 



40 King Eichard II. 

Great riot made by the students. 

it into the student's face. Whereupon the other 
students cried out, as the ancient chronicler re- 
lates it, "What meane we to suffer this villanie," 
and, taking an arrow, he set it in his bow, hav- 
ing caught up these weapons in the beginning 
of the fray, and let it fly at the cook, and killed 
him on the spot. 

This, of course, greatly increased the excite- 
ment. More students came in, and so great was 
the tumult and confusion that the legate was in 
terror for his life, and he fled and concealed him- 
self in the belfry of the abbey. After lying in 
this place of concealment for some time, until 
the tumult was in some measure appeased, he 
crept out secretly, fled across the Thames, and 
then, mounting a horse, made the best of his 
way to London. 

He made complaint to the king of the indig- 
nity which he had endured, and the king imme- 
diately sent a troop of armed men, with an earl 
at the head of them, to rescue the remainder of 
the legate's men that were still imprisoned in the 
abbey, and also to seize all the students that had 
been concerned in the riot and bring them to 
London. The earl proceeded to execute his 
commission. He apprehended thirty of the stu- 
dents, and, taking them to a neighboring castle, 
he shut them up there as prisoners. 



Quarrels. 41 

The end of the affair. Plan to assassinate the king. 

In the end, besides punishing the individual 
students who had made this disturbance, the re- 
gents and masters of the University were com- 
pelled to come to London, and there to go bare- 
footed through the principal street to a church 
where the legate was, and humbly to supplicate 
his forgiveness for the indignity which he had 
suffered. And so, with great difficulty, they ob- 
tained their pardon. 

The students in those days, as students are 
apt to be in all countries and in all ages, were 
a very impulsive, and, in some respects, a law- 
less set. Whenever they deemed themselves 
injured, they pursued the object of their hostil- 
ity in the most reckless and relentless manner. 
At one time a member of the University became 
so excited against the king on account of some 
injury, real or imaginary, which he had suffer- 
ed, that he resolved to kill him. So he feigned 
himself mad, and in this guise he loitered many 
days about the palace of Woodstock, where the 
king was then residing, until at length he be- 
came well acquainted with all the localities. 
Then, watching his opportunity, he climbed by 
night through a window into a bedchamber 
where he thought the king was lying. He crept 
up to the bedside, and, throwing back the clothes, 
he stabbed several times into the bed with a 



42 King Eichard II. 

Margaret, the servant-girl. Execution of Marian. 

dagger. He, however, stabbed nothing but the 
bed itself, and the pillow, for the king that night, 
as it happened, lay in another chamber. 

As the student was making his escape, he was 
spied by one of the chambermaids named Mar- 
garet Biset. Margaret immediately made a 
great outcry, and the other servants, coming up, 
seized the student and carried him off to prison. 
He was afterward tried, and was convicted of 
treason in having made an attempt upon the 
king's life, and was hanged. Before his death 
he said that he had been employed to kill the 
king by another man, a certain William de Mar- 
ish, who was a noted and prominent man of 
those days. This William de Marish was aft- 
erward taken and brought to trial, but he sol- 
emnly denied that he had ever instigated the 
student to commit the crime. He was, how- 
ever, condemned and executed, and, according 
to the custom in those days in the case of per- 
sons convicted of treason, his body was subject- 
ed after his death to extreme indignities, and 
then was divided into four quarters, one of 
which was sent to each of the four principal cit- 
ies of the kingdom, and publicly exhibited in 
them as a warning to all men of the dreadful 
consequences of attempting such a crime. 

Great pains were taken in those days to in- 



Quarrels. 43 

Ideas of the sacredness of the person of a king. 

still into the minds of all men the idea that to 
kill a king was the worst crime that a human 
being could commit. One of the writers of the 
time said that in wounding and killing a prince 
a man was guilty of homicide, parricide, Christ- 
icide, and even of deicide, all in one ; that is, 
that in the person of a king slain by the hand 
of the murderer the criminal strikes not only 
at a man, but at his own father, and at Christ 
his Savior, and God. 

A great many strange and superstitious no- 
tions were entertained by the people in respect 
to kings. These superstitions were encouraged, 
even by the scholars and historians of those 
times, who might be supposed to know better. 
But it was so much for their interest to write 
what should be agreeable to the king and to 
his court, that they were by no means scrupu- 
lous in respect to the tales which they told, pro- 
vided they were likely to be pleasing to those 
in authority, and to strengthen the powers and 
prestige of the reigning families. 

The neighboring countries with which the 
kings of England were most frequently at war 
in those days were Scotland, Wales, and France. 
These wars arose, not from any causes connect- 
ed with the substantial interests of the people of 



44 King Richard II. 

Origin of the wars with Leolin, Prince of Wales. 

England, but from the grasping ambition of the 
kings, who wished to increase the extent of their 
territories, and thus add to their revenues and 
to their power. Sometimes their wars arose 
from private and personal quarrels, and in these 
cases thousands of lives were often sacrificed, 
and great sums of money expended to revenge 
slights or personal injuries of comparatively lit- 
tle consequence. 

For instance, one of the wars with Wales 
broke out in this manner. Leolin, who was 
then the reigning Prince of Wales, sent to 
France, and requested the King of France that 
he might have in marriage a certain lady named 
Lady Eleanor, who was then residing in the 
French king's court. The motive of Leolin in 
making this proposal was not that he bore any 
love for the Lady Eleanor, for very likely he 
had never seen her ; but she was the daughter 
of an English earl named Montfort, Earl of Lei- 
cester, who was an enemy of the King of En- 
gland, and, having been banished from the coun- 
try, had taken refuge in France. Leolin thought 
that by proposing and carrying into effect this 
marriage, he would at once gratify the King of 
France and spite the King of England. 

The King of France at once assented to the 
proposed marriage, but the King of England 



Quarrels. 45 

Leolin's bride intercepted at sea. 

was extremely angry, and he determined to pre- 
vent the marriage if he could. He accordingly 
gave the necessary orders, and the little fleet 
which was sent from France to convey Eleanor 
to Wales was intercepted off the Scilly Islands 
on the way, and the whole bridal party were 
taken prisoners and sent to London. 

As soon as Leolin heard this, he, of course,- 
was greatly enraged, and he immediately set off 
with an armed troop, and made a foray upon 
the English frontiers, killing all the people that 
lived near the border, plundering their proper- 
ty, and burning up all the towns and villages 
that came in his way. There followed a long 
war. The English were, on the whole, the vic- 
tors in the war, and at the end of it a treaty was 
made by which Leolin's wife, it is true, was re- 
stored to him, but his kingdom was brought al- 
most completely under the power of the En- 
glish kings. 

Of course, Leolin was extremely dissatisfied 
with this result, and he became more and more 
uneasy in the enthralled position to which the 
English king had reduced him, and finally a 
new war broke out. Leolin was beaten in this 
war too, and in the end, in a desperate battle 
that was fought among the mountains, he was 
Blain. He was slain near the beginning of the 



46 King Kichard II. 

The unhappy fate of Leolin. Fate of Prince David, hi3 brother. 

battle. The man who killed him did not know 
at the time who it was that he had killed, though 
he knew from his armor that he was some dis- 
tinguished personage or other. When the bat- 
tle was ended this man went back to the place 
to see, and, finding that it was the Prince Leolin 
whom he had slain, he was greatly pleased. He 
cut off the head from the body, and sent it as a 
present to the king. The king sent the head to 
London, there to be paraded through the streets 
on the end of a long pole as a token of victory. 
After being carried in this manner through 
Cheapside — then the principal street of London 
— in order that it might be gazed upon by all 
the people, it was set up on a high pole near the 
Tower, and there remained a long time, a trophy, 
as the king regarded it, of the glory and renown 
of a victory, but really an emblem of cruel in- 
justice and wrong perpetrated by a strong 
against a weaker neighbor. 

Not long after this the King of England suc- 
ceeded in taking Prince David, the brother of 
Leolin, and, under the pretense that he had been 
guilty of treason, he cut off his head too, and set 
it up on another pole at the Tower of London, 
by the side of his brother's. 

It must be admitted, however, that, although 
these ancient warriors were generally extremely 



Quarrels. 47 

Occasional acta of generosity. 

unjust in their dealings with each other, and 
often barbarously cruel, they were still some- 
times actuated by high and noble sentiments of 
honor and generosity. On one occasion, for in- 
stance, when this same Edward the First, who 
was so cruel in his treatment of Leolin, was at 
war in Scotland, and was besieging a castle 
there, he wrote one day certain dispatches to 
send to his council in London, and, having in- 
quired for a speedy and trusty messenger to send 
them by, a certain Welshman named Lewin was 
sent to him. The king delivered the package 
to Lewin inclosed in a box, and also gave him 
money to bear his expenses on the way, and 
then sent him forth. 

Lewin, however, instead of setting out on his 
journey, went to a tavern, and there, with a 
party of his companions, he spent the money 
which he had received in drink, and passed the 
night carousing. In the morning he said that 
he must set out on his journey, but before he 
went he must go back to the castle and have 
one parting shot at the garrison. Under this 
pretext, he took his cross-bow and proceeded 
toward the castle wall ; but when he got there, 
instead of shooting his arrows, he called out to 
the wardens whom he saw on guard over the 
gate, and asked them to let down a rope and 



48 King Bichakd II 

Story of Lewin and the box of dispatches. 

draw him up into the castle, as he had some- 
thing of great importance to communicate to the 
governor of it. 

So the wardens let down a rope and drew 
Lewin up, and then took him to the governor, 
who was then at breakfast. Lewin held out the 
box to the governor, saying, 

"Here, sir, look in this box, and you may 
read all the secrets of the King of England." 

He said, moreover, that he would like to have 
the governor give him a place on the wall, and 
see whether he could handle a cross-bow or not 
against the English army. 

Grunpowder and guns had not been intro- 
duced as means of warfare at this time ; the 
most formidable weapon that was then employ- 
ed was the cross-bow. With the cross-bow a 
sort of square-headed arrow was used called a 
quarrel. 

The governor, instead of accepting these of- 
fers on the part of Lewin, immediately went 
out to one of the turrets on the wall, and, call- 
ing to the English soldiers whom he saw below, 
he directed them to tell the King of England 
that one of his servants had turned traitor, and 
had come into the castle with a box of dis- 
patches. 

"And tell him," said the governor, "that if 



Quarrels. 49 

The fate of Lewin. Origin of the modern title of Prince of Wales. 

he will send some persons here to receive him, 
I will let the man down to them over the wall, 
and also restore the box of dispatches, which I 
have not opened at all." 

Immediately Lord Spencer, one of the king's 
chief officers, came to the wall, and the governor 
of the castle let Lewin down to him by a rope, 
and also passed the box of letters down. The 
King of England was so much pleased with 
this generosity on the part of the governor that 
he immediately ceased his operations against 
the castle, though he caused Lewin to be hang- 
ed on a gallows of the highest kind. 

But to return to Wales. After the death of 
Leolin and his brother the kingdom of Wales 
was annexed to England, and has ever since re- 
mained a possession of the British crown. The 
King of England partly induced the people of 
Wales to consent to this annexation by prom- 
ising that he would still give them a native of 
Wales for prince. They thought he meant by 
this that they should continue to be governed 
by one of their own royal family ; but what he 
really meant was that he would make his own 
son Prince of Wales. This son of his was then 
an infant. He was born in Wales. This hap- 
pened from the fact that the king, in the course 

D 



50 Ring- Bichard II. 

The first English Prince of Wales. Piers Gavestoa 

of his conquests in that country, had seized 
upon a place called Caernarvon, and had built 
a castle there, in a beautiful situation on the 
Straits of Menai, which separate the main land 
from the isle of Anglesea. 

When his castle was finished the king brought 
the queen to Caernarvon to see it, and while 
she was there, her child, Prince Edward, who 
afterward became Edward the Second, was born. 

This was the origin of the title of Prince of 
Wales, which has been held ever since by the 
oldest sons of the English sovereigns. 

This first English Prince of Wales led a most 
unhappy life, and his history illustrates in a 
most striking manner one of the classes of quar- 
rels enumerated at the head of this chapter, 
namely, the disputes and contentions that often 
prevailed between the sovereign of the country 
and his principal nobles. While he was a young 
man he formed a very intimate friendship with 
another young man named Piers Graveston. 
This Graveston was a remarkably handsome 
youth, and very prepossessing and agreeable in 
his manners, and he soon gained a complete as- 
cendency over the mind of young Edward. He 
was, however, very wild and dissolute in his 
habits, and the influence which he exerted upon 
Edward was extremely bad. As long as the 



Quarrels. 53 

Edward II. and his favorite. Their wild and reckless behavior. 

common people only were injured by the law- 
less behavior of these young men, the king 
seems to have borne with them ; but at last, in 
a riot in which they were concerned, they broke 
into the park of a bishop, and committed dam- 
age there which the king could not overlook. 
He caused his son, the young prince, to be seized 
and put into prison, and he banished Gaveston 
from the country, and forbade his son to have 
any thing more to do with him. This was in 
1305, when the prince was twenty-one years 
of age. 

In 1307, two years later, the king died, and 
the prince succeeded him, under the title of 
King Edward the Second. He immediately 
sent for Gaveston to return to England, where 
he received him with the greatest joy. He 
made him a duke, under the title of Duke of 
Cornwall ; and as for the bishop whose park he 
and Gaveston had broken into, and on whose 
complaint Gaveston had been banished, in or- 
der to punish him for these offenses, the young 
king seized him and delivered him into Gav- 
eston's hands as a prisoner, and at the same 
time confiscated his estates and gave them to 
Gaveston. Gaveston sent the bishop about 
from castle to castle as a prisoner, according as 
his caprice or fancy dictated. 



54 King Richard II. 

The king goes away to be married. 

These things made the barons and nobles of 
England extremely indignant, for Gaveston, 
besides being a corrupt and dissipated charac- 
ter, was, in fact, a foreigner by birth, being a 
native of Gascony, in France. His character 
seemed to grow worse with his exaltation, and 
he and Edward spent all their time in rioting 
and excess, and in perpetrating every species 
of iniquity. 

Edward had been for some time engaged to 
be married to the Princess Isabel, the daughter 
of the King of France. About six months 
after his accession to the throne he set off for 
France to be married. It was his duty, accord- 
ing to the ancient usages of the realm, to ap- 
point some member of the royal family, or some 
prominent person from the ancient nobility of 
the country, to govern the kingdom as regent 
during his absence ; but instead of this he put 
Gaveston in this place, and clothed him with 
all the powers of a viceroy. 

Edward was married to Isabel in Paris with 
great pomp and parade. Isabel was very beau- 
tiful, and was a general favorite. It is said that 
there were four kings and three queens present 
at the marriage ceremony. Edward, however, 
seemed to feel very little interest either in his 
bride or in the occasion of his marriage, but 



Quarrels. 55 

Edward's indifference on the occasion of his marriage. 




PORTRAIT OF EDWARD THE SECOND. 



manifested a great impatience to get through 
with the ceremonies, so as to return to England 
and to Gaveston. As soon as it was possible, 
he set out on his return. The bridal party 
were met at their landing by Gaveston, accom- 
panied by all the principal nobility, who came 



56 King Eichard II. 

— — — — . — % 

His infatuation in respect to Gaveston. The coronation. 

to receive and welcome them at the frontier. 
The king was overjoyed to see Gaveston again. 
He fell into his arms, hugged and kissed him, 
and called him his dear brother, while, on the 
other hand, he took very little notice of the no- 
bles and high officers of state. Every body 
was surprised and displeased at this behavior, 
but as Edward was king there was nothing to 
be said or done. 

Soon afterward the coronation took place, 
and on this occasion all the honors were allot- 
ted to Gaveston, to the utter neglect of the an- 
cient and hereditary dignitaries of the realm. 
Gaveston carried the crown, and walked before 
the king and queen, and acted in all respects" 
as if he were the principal personage in the 
country. The old nobles were, of course, ex- 
tremely indignant at this. Hitherto they had 
expressed their displeasure at the king's favor- 
itism by private murmurings and complaints, 
but now, they thought, it was time to take some 
concerted public action to remedy the evil ; so 
they met together, and framed a petition to be 
sent to the king, in which, though under the 
form of a request, they, in fact, demanded that 
Gaveston should be dismissed from his offices, 
and required to leave the country. 

The king was alarmed, He, however, could 



Quarrels. 57 

Bold and presumptuous demeanor of Gaveston. His unpopularity. 

not think of giving his favorite up. So he said 
that he would return them an answer to the pe- 
tition by-and-by, and he immediately began to 
pursue a more conciliatory course toward the 
nobles. But the effect of his attempts at con- 
ciliation was spoiled by Gaveston's behavior. 
lie became more and more proud and ostenta- 
tious every day. He appeared in all public 
places, and every where he took precedence of 
the highest nobles of the land, and prided him- 
self on outshining them in the pomp and parade 
which he displayed. He attended all the jousts 
and tournaments, and, as he was really a very 
handsome and well-formed man, and well skill- 
ed in the warlike sports in fashion in those 
days, he bore away most of the great prizes. 
He thus successfully rivaled the other nobles 
in gaining the admiration of the ladies of the 
court and the applause of the multitude, and 
made the nobles hate him more than ever. 

Things went on in this way worse and worse, 
until at last the general sentiment became so 
strong against Gaveston that the Parliament, 
when it met, took a decided stand in opposition 
to him, and insisted that he should be expelled 
from the country. A struggle followed, but the 
king was obliged to yield. Gaveston was re- 
quired to leave the country, and to take an oath 



58 King Kichard II. 

He is banished. His parting. Gaveston's return. 

never to return. It was only on these condi- 
tions that the Parliament would uphold the 
government, and thus the king saw that he 
must lose either his friend or his crown. 

Graveston went away. The king accompa- 
nied him to the sea-shore, and took leave of him 
there in the most affectionate manner, promis- 
ing to bring him back again as soon as he could 
possibly do it. He immediately began to ma- 
noeuvre for the accomplishment of this purpose. 
In the mean time, as Graveston had only sworn 
to leave England, the king sent him to Ireland, 
and made him governor general of that coun- 
try, and there Graveston lived in greater power 
and splendor than ever. 

At length, in little more than a year, Grav- 
eston came back. His oath not to return was 
disposed of by means of a dispensation which 
King Edward obtained for him from the Pope, 
absolving him from the obligation of it. "When 
he was reinstated in the king's court he be- 
haved more scandalously than ever. He re- 
venged himself upon the nobles who had been 
the means of sending him away by ridiculing 
them and giving them nicknames. One of 
them he called Joseph the Jew, because his face 
was pale and thin, and bore, in some respects, a 
Jewish expression. Another, the Earl of War- 



Quarrels. 5$ 

The Black Dog of Ardenne. Gaveston made prisoner. 

wick, he called the Black Dog of Ardenne. 
When the earl heard of this, he said, clenching 
his fist, "Very well; I'll make him feel the 
Black Dog's teeth yet." 

In a word, the nobles were excited to the 
greatest pitch of rage and indignation against 
the favorite, and, after various struggles and 
contentions between them and the king, they at 
length broke out into an open revolt. The 
king at this time, with Gaveston and his wife, 
were at Newcastle, which is in the north of 
England. The barons fell upon him here with 
the intention of seizing Graveston. Both the 
king and Gaveston, however, succeeded in mak- 
ing their escape. Gaveston fled to a castle, and 
shut himself up there. The king escaped by 
sea, leaving his wife behind, at the mercy of the 
conspirators. The barons treated the queen 
with respect, but they pressed on at once in pur- 
suit of Gaveston. They laid siege to the castle 
where he sought refuge. Finding that the cas- 
tle could not hold out long, Gaveston thought 
it best to surrender while it yet remained in his 
power to make terms with his enemies ; so he 
agreed to give himself up, they stipulating that 
they would do him no bodily harm, but only 
confine him, and that the place of his confine- 
ment should be one of his own castles. 



60 King Bichakd II. 

Consultation respecting him. His fate. 

When he came down into the court-yard of 
the castle, after signing this stipulation, he found 
there ready to receive him the Earl of War 
wick, the man to whom he had given the nick- 
name of the Black Dog of Ardenne. The earl 
was at the head of a large force. He immedi- 
ately took Gaveston into custody, and galloped 
off with him at the head of his troop to his own 
castle. The engraving represents a view of 
this fortress as it appeared in those days. 

When they had got Gaveston safe into this 
castle, the chiefs held a sort of council of war 
to determine what should be done with their 
prisoner. While they were consulting on the 
subject, intending apparently to spare his life 
as they had agreed, some one called out, 

" It has cost you a great deal of trouble to 
catch the fox, and now, if you let him go, you 
will have a great deal more trouble in hunting 
him again." 

This consideration decided them; so they 
took the terrified prisoner, and, in spite of his 
piteous cries for mercy, they hurried him away 
to a solitary place a mile or two from the cas- 
tle, and there, on a little knoll by the side of 
the road, they cut off his head. 

One would have supposed that by this time 
the king would have been cured of the folly of 



Quarrels. 63 

The Spencers. The queen and Mortimer. 

devoting himself to favorites, but he was not. 
He mourned over the death of Gaveston at first 
with bitter grief, and when this first paroxysm 
of his sorrow was passed, it was succeeded with 
a still more bitter spirit of revenge. He im- 
mediately took the field against his rebellious 
barons, and a furious civil war ensued. He 
soon, too, found a new favorite, or, rather, two 
favorites. They were brothers, and their names 
were Spencer. They are called in history the 
Spencers, or the Despensers. The quarrels and 
wars which took place between the king and 
these favorites on one hand, and the barons and 
nobles on the other, were continued for many 
years. The queen took sides with the nobles 
against her husband and the Spencers. She 
fled to France, and there formed an intimacy 
with a young nobleman named Mortimer, who 
joined himself to her, and thenceforth accom- 
panied her and made common cause with her 
against her husband. With this Mortimer she 
raised an army, and, sailing from Flanders, she 
landed in England. On landing, she summon- 
ed the barons to join her, and took the field 
against her husband. The king was beaten in 
this war, and fled again on board a vessel, in- 
tending to make his escape by sea. The two 
Spencers, one after the other, were taken pris- 



64 King Richard II. 

Edward III. proclaimed king. Edward II. made prisoner. 

oners, and both were hung on gibbets fifty feet 
high. They were hung in their armor, and 
after they were dead their bodies were taken 
down and treated as it was customary to treat 
the bodies of traitors.* 

In the midst of these proceedings the barons 
held a sort of Parliament, and made a solemn 
declaration that the king, by his flight, had ab- 
dicated the throne, and they proclaimed his son, 
the young Prince of Wales, then about four- 
teen years old, king, under the title of Edward 
the Third. In the mean time, the king himself, 
who had attempted to make his escape by sea, 
was tossed about in a storm for some days, until 
at last he was driven on the coast in South 
Wales. He concealed himself for some days 
in the mountains. Here he was hunted about 
for a time, until he was reduced to despair by 
his destitution and his sufferings, when at length 
he came forth and delivered himself up to his 
enemies. 

He was made prisoner and immediately sent 
to Kenilworth Castle, and there secured. Af- 

* In cases of treason the condemned man was first dis- 
emboweled; then his head was taken off; then the body 
was cut into quarters. The head and the four quarters of 
the body were then sent to various parts of the kingdom, 
and set up in conspicuous places in large cities and towns. 



A.D. 1327.] Quarrels. 67 

Edward II. formally deposed at Kenihvorth. 

terward he was brought to trial. He was ac- 
cused of shameful indolence and incapacity, and 
also of cowardice, cruelty, and oppression, and 
of having brought the country, by his vices and 
maladministration, to the verge of ruin. He 
was convicted on these charges, and the queen, 
his wife, confirmed the verdict. 

Not being quite sure, after all, that by these 
means the dethronement of the king was legal- 
ly complete, the Parliament sent a solemn dep- 
utation to Kenihvorth Castle to depose the mon- . 
arch in form. The king was brought out to 
meet this deputation in a great hall of the cas- 
tle. He came just as he was, dressed in a sim- 
ple black gown. The deputation told him that 
he was no longer king, that all allegiance had 
been withdrawn from him on the part of the 
people, and that henceforth he must consider 
himself as a private man. As they said this, 
the steward of the household came forward and 
broke his white wand, the badge of his office, 
in token that the household was dissolved, and 
he declared that by that act all the king's serv- 
ants were discharged and freed. This was a 
ceremony that was usually performed at the 
death of a king, and it was considered in this 
case as completely and finally terminating the 
reign of Edward. 



68 King Kichard II. 



The delegation require the king to abdicate the crown. 



The delegation also exacted from him some- 
thing which they considered as a resignation 
of the crown. His son, the young prince, it 
was said, was unwilling to ascend the throne 
unless the barons could induce his father volun- 
tarily to abdicate his own rights to it. They 
were the more desirous in this case of complete- 
ly and forever extinguishing all of King Ed- 
ward's claims, because they were afraid that 
there might be a secret party in his favor, and 
that that party might gain strength, and finally 
come out openly against them in civil war, in 
which case, if they were worsted, they knew that 
they would all be hung as traitors. 

Indeed, soon after this time it began to ap- 
pear that there were, in fact, some persons who 
were disposed to sympathize with the king. 
His queen, Isabel, who had been acting against 
him during the war, was now joined with Mor- 
timer, her favorite, and they two held pretty 
much the whole control of the government, for 
the new king was yet too young to reign. 
Many of the monks and other ecclesiastics of 
the time openly declared that Isabel was guilty 
of great sin in thus abandoning her husband 
for the sake of another man. They said that 
she ought to leave Mortimer, and go and join 
her husband in his prison, And it was not long 



Quarrels. 69 

Opinion of the monks. Alarm of the nobles. 




A MONK OF THOSE DAYS. 



oefore it began to be rumored that secret plots 
were forming to attempt the king's deliverance 
from his enemies. This alarmed the nobles 
more than ever. The queen and some others 
wrote sharp letters to the keepers of the castle 
for dealing so gently with their prisoner, and 
gave them hints that they ought to kill him. In 
the end, the fallen monarch was transported from 
one fortress to another, until at length he came 



70 King Bichard II. 

Berkeley Castle. Plot for assassinating the king. 

to Berkeley Castle. The inducement which led 
Mortimer and the queen to send the king to 
these different places was the hope that some 
one or other of the keepers of the castles would 
divine their wishes in regard to him, and put 
him to death. But no one did so. The keeper 
of Berkeley Castle, indeed, instead of putting his 
prisoner to death, seemed inclined to take com- 
passion on him, and to treat him more kindly 
even than the others had done. Accordingly, 
after waiting some time, Mortimer seized an 
opportunity when Lord Berkeley, having gone 
away from home, was detained away some days 
by sickness, to send two tierce and abandoned 
men, named Grourney and Ogle, to the castle, 
with instructions to kill the king in some way 
or other, but, if possible, in such a manner as to 
make it appear that he died a natural death. 
These men tried various plans without success. 
They administered poisons, and resorted to va- 
rious other diabolical contrivances. At last, one 
night, dreadful outcries and groans were heard 
coming from the king's apartment. They were 
accompanied from time to time with shrieks of 
terrible agony. These sounds were continued 
for some time, and they were heard in all parts 
of the castle, and in many of the houses of the 
town. The truth was, the executioners whom 



5? 




Quarrels. 73 

# . 

Dreadful death. Great hatred of Mortimer. 

Mortimer had sent were murdering the king in 
a manner almost too horrible to be described.* 
The people in the castle and in the town knew 
very well what these dreadful outcries meant. 
They were filled with consternation and horror 
at the deed, and they spent the time in praying 
to Grod that he would receive the soul of the 
unhappy victim. 

After this, Mortimer and the queen for two 
or three years held pretty nearly supreme pow- 
er in the realm, though, of course, they govern- 
ed in the name of the young king, who was yet 
only fourteen or fifteen years of age. There 
was, however, a great secret hatred of Mortimer 
among all the old nobility of the realm. This 
ill-will ripened at last into open hostility. A 
conspiracy was formed to destroy Mortimer, and 
to depose the queen-mother from her power, 
and to place young Edward in possession of the 

* They came to him while he was asleep, and pressed 
him down with heavy feather beds, which they cast upon 
him to stifle his cries, and then thrust a red-hot spit up into 
his bowels through a horn, as some said, or a part of the 
tube of a trumpet, according to others, so as to kill him by 
the internal burning without making any outward mark of 
the fire on his person. Notwithstanding their efforts to stifle 
his cries, he struggled so desperately in his agony as partly 
to break loose from them, and thus made his shrieks and 
outcries heard, 



74 King Kichaed II. 

» 

Situation of the castle of Nottingham. The caves. 

kingdom. Mortimer discovered what was going 
on, and he went for safety, with Edward and the 
queen, to the castle of Nottingham, where he 
shut himself up, and placed a strong guard at 
the gates and on the walls. 

This castle of Nottingham was situated upon 
a hill, on the side of which was a range of ex- 
cavations which had been made in a chalky 
stone by some sort of quarrying. There was a 
subterranean passage from the interior of one 
of these caves which led to the castle. The cas- 
tle itself was strongly guarded, and every night 
Isabel required the warden, on locking the gates, 
to bring the keys to her, and she kept them by 
her bedside. The governor of the castle, how- 
ever, made an agreement with Lord Montacute, 
who was the leader in the conspiracy against 
Mortimer, to admit him to the castle at night 
through the subterranean passage. It seems 
that Mortimer and the queen did not know of 
the existence of this communication. They did 
not even know about the caves, for the mouths 
of them were at that time concealed by rubbish 
and brambles. 

It was near midnight when Montacute and the 
party who went with him entered the passage. 
They crowded their way through the bushes 
and brambles till they found the entrance of 



Quarrels. 77 

Entrance of the conspirators into the castle. 

the cave, and then went in. They were all 
completely armed, and they carried torches to 
light their way. They crept along the gloomy 
passage-way until at last they reached the door 
which led up into the interior of the castle. Here 
the governor was ready to let them in. As soon 
as they entered, they were joined by young Ed- 
ward at the foot of the main tower. They left 
their torches here, and Edward led them up a 
secret staircase to a dark chamber. They crept 
softly into this room and listened. They could 
hear in an adjoining hall the voices of Morti- 
mer and several of his adherents, who were 
holding a consultation. They waited a few 
minutes, and then, making a rush into the pas- 
sage-way which led to the hall, they killed two 
knights who were on sentry there to guard the 
door, and, immediately bursting into the apart- 
ment, made Mortimer and all his friends pris- 
oners. 

The queen, who was in her bed in an adjoin- 
ing room at this time, rushed frantically out 
when she heard the noise of the affray, and, 
with piteous entreaties and many tears, she beg- 
ged and prayed Edward, her "sweet son," as 
she called him, to spare the gentle Mortimer, 
" her dearest friend, her well-beloved cousin." 
The conspirators did spare him at that time; 



78 King Richard II. 

Isabella's unhappy fate. Mortimer's Hole. 

they took liim prisoner, and bore him away to a 
place of safety. He was soon afterward brought 
to trial on a charge of treason, and hanged. Isa- 
bel was deprived of all her property, and shut 
up in a castle as a prisoner of state. In this 
castle she afterward lived nearly thirty years, in 
lonely misery, and then died. 

The adjoining engraving represents a near 
view of the subterranean passage by which Lord 
Montacute and his party gained admission to 
the castle of Nottingham. It is known in mod- 
ern times as Mortimer's Hole. 



The Black Prince. 81 

Parentage of the Black Prince, Richard's father. 



Chapter III. 
The Black Prince. 

THE father of King Richard the Second was 
a celebrated Prince of Wales, known in 
history as the Black Prince. The Black Prince, 
as his title Prince of Wales implies, was the old- 
est son of the King of England. His father was 
Edward the Third. The Black Prince was, of 
course, heir to the crown, and he would have 
been king had it not happened that he died be- 
fore his father. Consequently, when at last his 
father, King Edward, died, Richard, who was 
the oldest son of the prince, and, of course, the 
grandson of the king, succeeded to the throne, 
although he was at that time only ten years 
old. 

The Christian name of the Black Prince was 
Edward. He was called the Black Prince on 
account of the color of his armor. The knights 
and warriors of those days were often named in 
this way from some peculiarity in their armor. 

Edward, being the oldest son of the king his 
father, was Prince of Wales. lie was often call- 
ed the Prince o2 Wales, and often simply Prince 

F 



82 King Kichard It. 

Reason for the name. Situation of Crecy. 

Edward; but, inasmuch as there were several 
successive Edwards, each of whom was in his 
3^outh the Prince of Wales, neither of those ti- 
tles alone would be a sufficiently distinctive ap- 
pellation for the purposes of history. This Ed' 
ward accordingly, as he became very celebrated 
in his day, and inasmuch as, on account of his 
dying before his father, he never became any 
thing more than Prince of Wales, is known in 
history almost exclusively by the title of the 
Black Prince. 

But, although he never attained to a higher 
title than that of prince, he still lived to a very 
mature age. He was more than forty years old 
when he died. He, however, began to acquire 
his great celebrity when he was very young; 
he fought at the great battle of Crecy, in France, 
as one of the principal commanders on the En- 
glish side, when he was only about seventeen 
years old. 

Crecy, or Cressy, as it is sometimes called, is 
situated on the banks of the Eiver Somme, in the 
northeast part of France. The circumstances 
under which the battle in this place was fought 
are as follows. The King of England, Edward 
the Third, the father of the Black Prince, laid 
claim to the throne of France. The ground of 
his claim was that, through his grandmother 



A.D.1336.] The Black Prince. 83 

Nature of Edward' s claim to the crown of France. 



&l 



Isabel, who was a daughter of the French king, 
he was the nearest blood-relation to the royal 
line, all the other branches of the family nearer 
than his own being extinct. Now the people 
of France were, of course, very unwilling that 
the King of England should become entitled to 
the French crown, and they accordingly made 
a certain Prince Philip the king, who reigned 
under the title of Philip the Sixth. Philip was 
the nearest relative after Edward, and he de- 
rived his descent through males alone, while 
Edward, claiming, as he did, through his grand- 
mother Isabel, came through a female line. 

Now there was an ancient law prevailing in 
certain portions of France, called the Salic law,* 
by which female children were excluded from 
inheriting the possessions of their fathers. This 
principle was at first applied to the inheriting 
of private property, but it was afterward extend- 
ed to rights and titles of all sorts, and finally to 
the descent of the crown of France. Indeed, the 
right to rule over a province or a kingdom was 
considered in those days as a species of proper- 
ty, which descended from father to child by ab- 

* The Salic law is very celebrated in history, and ques- 
tions growing out of it gave rise, in ancient times, to innu- 
merable wars. It derived its name from a tribe of people 
called Saliens, by whom it was first introduced. 



84 King Eichaed II. [A.D.1338. 

The Salic law. Reason for it. Edward' s case. 

solute right, over which the people governed 
had no control whatever. 

The chief reason why the Salic law was ap- 
plied to the case of the crown of France was 
not, as it might at first be supposed, because it 
was thought in those days that women were 
not qualified to reign, but because, by allowing 
the crown to descend to the daughters of the 
king as well as to the sons, there was danger of 
its passing out of the country. The princes of 
the royal family usually remained in their own 
land, and, if they married at all, they married 
usually foreign princesses, whom they brought 
home to live with them in their native land. 
The princesses, on the other hand, when they 
grew up, were very apt to marry princes of oth- 
er countries, who took them away to the places 
where they, the princes, respectively lived. If, 
now, these princesses were allowed to inherit 
the crown, and, especially, if the inheritance 
were allowed to pass through them to their 
children, cases might occur in which the king- 
dom of France might descend to some foreign- 
born prince, the heir, or the actual ruler, per- 
haps, of some foreign kingdom. 

This was precisely what happened in Ed- 
ward's case. The Salic law had not then been 
fully established. Edward maintained that it 



A.D.1346.] The Black Prince. 85 

Edward raises an army and sets out for France. 

was not law. He claimed that the crown de- 
scended through Isabel to him. The French, 
on the other hand, insisted on passing him by, 
and decided that Philip, who, next to him, was 
the most direct descendant, and whose title 
came through a line of males, should be king. 

In this state of things Edward raised a great 
army, and set out for France in order to possess 
himself of the French crown. The war con- 
tinued many years, in the course of which Ed- 
ward fitted out several different expeditions into 
France. 

It was in one of these expeditions that he 
took his son, the Black Prince, then only seven- 
teen years of age, as one of his generals. The 
prince was a remarkably fine young man, tall 
and manly in form, and possessed of a degree 
of maturity of mind above his years. He was 
affable and unassuming, too, in his manners, 
and was a great favorite among all the ranks of 
the army. 

The map on the following page shows the 
course of the expedition, and the situation of 
Crecy. The fleet which brought the troops over 
landed there on a cape a little to the westward 
of the region shown upon the map. From the 
place where they landed they marched across 
the country, as seen by the track upon the map, 



86 



King Richard II. 



Map. 



The army reaches Rouen. 




CAMPAIGN OF CRECY. 



toward the Seme. They took possession of the 
towns on the way, and plundered and wasted 
the country. 

They advanced in this manner until at length 
they reached the river opposite Rouen, which 
was then, as now, a very large and important 
town. It stands on the eastern bank of the riv- 
er. On reaching Eouen, Edward found the 
French army ready to meet him. There was a 
oridge of boats there, and Edward had intended 
to cross the river by it, and get into the town 
of Rouen. He found, however, on his arrivai 
opposite the town, that the bridge was gone. 
The French king had destroyed it. He then 



The Black Prince. 89 

Progress of the army. Arrival at Amiens. 

turned his course up the river, keeping, of 
course, on the western and southern side of the 
stream, and looking out for an opportunity to 
cross. But as fast as he ascended on one side 
of the river, Philip ascended on the other, and 
destroyed all the bridges before Edward's ar- 
mies could get to them. In this way the two 
armies advanced, each on its own side of the 
river, until they reached the environs of Paris, 
the English burning and destroying every thing 
that came in their way. There was a good deal 
of manoeuvring between the two armies near 
Paris, in the course of which Edward contrived 
to get across the river. He crossed at Poissy 
by means of a bridge which Philip had only 
partially destroyed. While Philip was away, 
looking out for his capital, Paris, which Edward 
was threatening, Edward hastened back to get 
possession of the bridge, repaired it, and march- 
ed his army over before Philip could return. 

Both armies then struck across the country 
toward the River Somme. Philip reached the 
river first. He crossed at Amiens, and then 
went down on the right or eastern bank of the 
river, destroying all the bridges on the way. 
Edward, when he reached the river, found no 
place to cross. He tried at Pont St. Remi, at 
Long, and at other places, but failed every 



90 King Kichakd II. 

Progress of the two armies down the Somme. 

where. In the mean time, while his own forces 
had gradually been diminishing, Philip's had 
been rapidly increasing. Philip now divided 
his force. He sent down one portion on the 
eastern side of the river to prevent the English 
from crossing. With the other portion he came 
back to the left bank, and began to follow Ed- 
ward's army down toward the mouth of the 
river. Edward went on in this way as far as 
Oisemont, and here he began to find himself in 
great danger of being hemmed in by Philip's 
army in a corner between the river and the sea. 
He sent scouts up and down to try to find 
some place where he could cross by a ford, as 
the bridges were all down ; but no fording-place 
could be found. He then ordered the prisoners 
that he had taken to be all brought together, 
and he offered liberty and a large reward in 
money to any one of them that would show him 
where there was a ford by which he could get 
his army across the river. He thought that 
they, being natives of the country, would be 
sure to know about the fording-places, if any 
there were. One of the prisoners, a country- 
man named Gobin, told him that there was a 
place a little lower down the river, called White 
Spot, where people could wade across the river 
when the tide was low, The tide ebbed and 



The Black Prince. 91 

Edward's anxiety about crossing the river. 

flowed in the river here, on account of its being 
so near the sea. 

This was in the evening. King Edward was 
awake all night with anxiety, expecting every 
moment that Philip would come suddenly upon 
him. He rose at midnight, and ordered the 
trumpets to sound in order to arouse the men. 
The officers were all on the alert, the young 
prince among them. All was movement and 
bustle in the camp. As soon as the day dawn- 
ed they commenced their march, Gobin leading 
the way. He was well guarded. They were 
all ready to cut him to pieces if he should fail 
to lead them to the ford which he had prom- 
ised. But he found the ford, though at the time 
that the army reached the spot the tide was 
high, so that they could not cross. Besides this, 
the king saw that on the opposite bank there 
was a large body of French troops posted to 
guard the passage. Edward was obliged to 
wait some hours for the tide to go down, being 
in a terrible state of suspense all the time for 
fear that Philip should come down upon him 
in the rear, in which case his situation would 
have been perilous in the extreme. 

At last the tide was low enough to make the 
river fordable, and Edward ordered his troops 
to dash forward into the river. The men ad- 



92 King Richard II. 

Danger from the tide. Edward posts himself at Crecy. 

vanced, but they were met in the middle of the 
stream by the troops that had been posted on 
the bank to oppose them. There was a short 
and desperate conflict in the water, but Edward 
at last forced his way through, and drove the 
French away. 

It then required some hours for all his army 
to cross. They had barely time to accomplish 
the work before the tide came up again. Just 
at this time, too, Philip's army appeared, but it 
was too late for them to cross the ford, and so 
Edward escaped with the main body of his 
army, though a portion of those in the rear, 
who were not able to get across in time, fell into 
Philip's hands, and were either killed or taken 
prisoners on the margin of the water. 

The young prince was, of course, as much re- 
joiced as his father at this fortunate escape. 
The army were all greatly encouraged, too, by 
the result of the battle which they had fought 
on the bank of the river in landing ; and, final- 
ly, Edward resolved that he would not retreat 
any farther. He determined to choose a good 
position, and draw up his army in array, and so 
give Philip battle if he chose to come on. The 
place which he selected was a hill at Crecy. 
Philip soon • after came up, and the battle was 
fought ; and thus it was that Crecy became the 



The Black Pkince. 93 

Plan of the battle. The Black Prince in command. 

scene of the great and celebrated conflict which 
bears its name. 

King Edward arrayed his troops in success- 
ive lines on the declivity of the hill, while he 
himself took his station, with a large reserve, 
on the summit of it. He committed the general 
charge of the battle to his generals and knights, 
and one of the chief in command was the young 
prince, who was placed at the head of one of 
the most important lines, although he was at 
this time, as has already been said, only seven- 
teen years old. 

The King of France, with an immense host, 
came on toward the place where Edward was 
encamped, confident that, as soon as he could 
come up with him, he should at once over- 
whelm and destroy him. His army was very 
large, while Edward's was comparatively small. 
Philip's army, however, was not under good 
control. The vast columns filled the roads for 
miles, and when the front arrived at the place 
where Edward's aimy was posted, the officers 
attempted to halt them all, but those behind 
crowded on toward those in front, and made 
great confusion. Then there was disagreement 
and uncertainty among Philip's counselors in 
respect to the time of making the attack. Some 
were in favor of advancing at once, but others 



94 



King Kichard II. 



Picture of the Genoese archer. 



were for waiting till the next day, as the sol- 
diers were worn out and exhausted by their 
long march. 

There was a large body of Genoese archers 
who fought with cross-bows, a very heavy but a 




GENOESE ARCHER. 



Very efficient weapon. The officers who com- 
manded these archers were in favor of waiting 



The Black Prince. 95 

Philip gets out of patience. The rain. 

for the attack till the next day, as their men 
were very weary from the fatigue of carrying 
their cross-bows so far. They had marched 
eighteen miles that day, very heavily laden. 
Philip was angry with them for their unwilling- 
ness to go at once into battle. 

" See," he cried out, " see what we get by 
employing such scoundrels, who fail us at the 
very moment when we want them." 

This made the archers very angry, but nev- 
ertheless they formed in order of battle at the 
command of their officers, and went forward to 
the van. There went with them a large troop 
of horsemen under the French general. The 
horses of this troop were splendidly equipped, 
and were fierce for the fight. 

While these preparations were making, a 
very black cloud was seen rising in the sky, 
until the whole heavens were darkened by it. 
The wind blew, and immense flocks of crows 
flew screaming through the air, over the heads 
of the army. Presently it began to rain. The 
rain increased rapidly, until it fell in torrents, 
and every body was drenched. There was, how- 
ever, no possibility of shelter or escape from it, 
and the preparations for the fight accordingly 
still went on. 

At length, about five o'clock, it cleared up, 



96 King Hichard II. 

The battle. More difficulty Avith the archers. 

just as the battle was about to begin. The Gen- 
oese archers were in front with the horsemen, 
but the English, who had all this time remain- 
ed calm and quiet at their posts, poured such 
a volley of arrows into their ranks that they 
were soon broken and began to be thrown into 
confusion. Other English soldiers ran out from 
their ranks armed with knives set into the ends 
of long poles, and they thrust these knives into 
the horses of the troop. The horses, terrified 
and maddened with the pain, turned round and 
ran in among the Genoese archers, and trampled 
many of them under foot. This made the whole 
body of archers waver and begin to fall back. 
Then Philip, who was coming on behind at the 
head of other bodies of troops, fell into a great 
rage, and shouted out in a thundering voice, 

" Kill me those scoundrels, for they only stop 
our way without doing any good." 

Of course, this made the confusion worse than 
ever. In the mean time, the English soldiers, 
under the command of Prince Edward and the 
other leaders, pressed slowly and steadily for- 
ward, and poured in such an incessant and dead- 
ly fire of darts and arrows upon the confused 
and entangled masses of their enemies, that they 
could not rally or get into order again. Some 
of the French generals made desperate efforts 



The Black Prince. 97 

They send for help for the Prince of Wales. 

in other parts of the field to turn the tide, but 
in vain. 

At one time, when the battle was very hot 
in the part of the field where the young English 
prince was fighting, messengers went up the hill 
to the place where the king was stationed, near 
a wind-mill, whence he was watching the prog- 
ress of the fight, to ask him to send some suc- 
cor to the troops that were fighting with the 
prince. 

"Is my son killed?" asked the king. 

"No, sire," said the messenger. 

"Is he unhorsed or wounded?" asked the 
king. 

"No, sire," replied the messenger. "He is 
safe thus far, and is fighting with his troop, but 
he is very hard beset." 

" No matter for that," said the king. " Go 
and tell him he can not have any help from me. 
I intend that the glory of this victory shall be 
for him alone, and for those to whom I have 
intrusted him." 

Things went on in this way for some time, 
until at length the whole French army was 
thrown into utter confusion, and the men were 
flying in all directions. Night was coming on, 
and it was beginning to be impossible to distin- 
guish friend from foe. A French knight rode 

a 



98 King Richakd II. 



Flight of the King of France from the field of battle. 



up to the King of France, and, seizing his horse 
by the bridle, turned him away, saying to the 
king, 

" Sire, it is time to withdraw. By remaining 
here any longer you will only sacrifice yourself 
to no purpose. Keserve yourself to win the 
victory some other day." 

So the king turned and fled, a small party of 
his officers accompanying him. He fled to a 
castle in the neighborhood, called the Castle of 
La Broye, and sought refuge there. When the 
party arrived the gates were shut, for it was late 
and dark. They summoned the castellan, or 
keeper of the castle. He came out upon the 
battlements and demanded who was there. 

The king called out, 

" Open, castellan, open. It is the fortune of 
France." 

The castellan knew the king's voice, and or- 
dered the gate to be opened, and the drawbridge 
to be let down. The king and his party, which 
consisted of only five persons, went in. They 
remained at the castle only a short time to take 
some wine and other refreshment, and then set 
out again, at midnight, with guides furnished 
them by the castellan, and rode to Amiens, 
which, being a large and well-fortified town, was 
at least a temporary place of safety. 



The Black Prince. 99 

Account of the old King of Bohemia. 

But, though the king himself thus made his 
escape, a great many of the knights and gener- 
als in his army would not fly, but remained 
fighting on the field until they were killed. 
There was one of the king's allies, the King of 
Bohemia, whose death, if the legends which 
have come down to us respecting this battle are 
true, occurred under very extraordinary circum- 
stances. He was present with the army, not as 
a combatant, for he was old and blind, and thus 
completely helpless. He came, it would seem, 
to accompany his son, who was an active com- 
mander in Philip's army. His son was danger- 
ously wounded, and forced to abandon the field, 
and the old king was so overwhelmed with 
chagrin at the result of the battle, and so en- 
raged at the fate of his son, that he determined 
to charge upon the enemy himself. So he 
placed himself between two knights, who inter- 
laced the bridle of his horse with the bridles of 
theirs, for the king himself could not see to 
guide the reins, and in this manner they rode 
into the thickest of the fight, where the Black 
Prince was contending. They were all almost 
immediately killed. 

Prince Edward was so much struck with this 
spectacle, that he adopted the motto on the old 
king's shield for his. This motto was the Ger- 



100 King Eichaed II. 

Origin of the motto and device of the Prince of Wales. 

man phrase Ich dien, under three plumes. The 
words mean / serve. This motto and device 
have been borne in the coat of arms of the 
Prince of Wales from that day to this. 

At the close of the battle the soldiers kindled 
up great fires on account of the darkness of the 
night, and in the light of them King Edward 
came down from his post on the hill, his heart 
full of exultation and joj at the greatness of 
the victory which his army had achieved, and 
at the glory of his son. In front of the whole 
army, he took his son in his arms and kissed 
him, and said, 

" My dear son, Grod give you grace to per- 
severe as you have begun. You are my true 
son, for loyally you have acquitted yourself this 
day, and well do you deserve a crown." 

Edward received these honors in a very mod- 
est and unassuming manner. He bowed rever- 
entially before his father, and attributed to oth- 
ers rather than to himself the success of the day. 
His modesty and generosity of demeanor, con- 
nected with the undaunted bravery which he 
had really evinced in the fight, caused the whole 
army to feel an enthusiastic admiration for him, 
and, as fast as tidings of these events extended, 
all Europe was filled with his fame. 

After gaining this great battle Edward march 



The Black Prince. 101 

Fate of Calais. The six citizens. 

ed to Calais, a very important sea-port on the 
coast, to the northward of the mouth of the 
Somme, and laid siege to that town; and, al- 
though it was so strongly fortified that he could 
not force his way into it, he succeeded at length 
in starving the inhabitants into a surrender. 
He was so exasperated at the obstinate resist- 
ance of the people, that at last, when they were 
ready to surrender, he declared that he would 
only spare their lives on condition that six of 
the principal inhabitants should come out to his 
camp barefooted, bareheaded, and with halters 
about their necks, in order that they might be 
hung immediately. These cruel terms were 
complied with. Six of the principal inhabit- 
ants of the town volunteered to give themselves 
up as victims. They proceeded to Edward's 
camp, but their lives were saved by the inter- 
position of Philippa, the queen, Prince Edward's 
mother. The king was exceedingly unwilling 
to spare them, but he could not resist the en- 
treaties of Philippa, though he said he wished 
she had been somewhere else, so as not to have 
interfered with his revenge. 

Edward and all his army, with the queen and 
Prince Edward, marched into Calais with great 
pomp and parade. Soon after their entrance 
into the town a daughter was born to Philippa, 



102 King Eichaed II. 



Margaret of Calais. John of Gaunt. 

who was called, from the place of her nativity, 
Margaret of Calais. 

Besides this sister Margaret, Prince Edward 
had a brother born on the Continent of Europe. 
His name was John, and he was born in Ghent. 
He was called John of Ghent, or, as the English 
historians generally wrote it,. John of Gannt. 

After the taking of Calais there were othc : 
campaigns and battles, and more victories, some 
upon one side and some upon the other; and 
then, when both parties were so exhausted that 
their strength was gone, while yet their hostil- 
ity and hate continued unappeased, a truce was 
made. Then after the truce came new wars, 
and thus years rolled on. During all this time 
the Black Prince distinguished himself greatly 
as one of the chief of his father's generals. He 
grew up to full manhood ; and while, like the 
other warlike chieftains of those days, his life 
was devoted to deeds of rapine and murder, 
there was in his demeanor toward those with 
whom he was at peace, and toward enemies who 
were entirely subdued, a certain high-toned no- 
bleness and generosity of character, which, com- 
bined with his undaunted courage, and his ex- 
traordinary strength and prowess on the field 
of battle, made him one of the greatest lights of 
chivalry of his age. 



A.D. 1356.] Battle of Poictiers. 103 

The Black Prince sets out for France. 



Chapter IV. 
The Battle of Poictiers. 

IN process of time, Philip, the King of France, 
against whom these wars had been waged, 
died, and John succeeded him. In the course 
of the reign of John, the Black Prince, when he 
was about twenty -five years of age, set out from 
England, at the head of a large body of men, to 
invade France on the southern and western 
side. His first destination was Grascony, a coun- 
try in the southern part of France, between the 
Garonne, the Pyrenees, and the sea.* 

From London he went to Plymouth, where 
the fleet had been assembled in which he was 
to sail. He was accompanied on his march by 
an immense number of nobles and barons, all 
splendidly equipped and armed, and full of en- 
thusiastic expectations of the glory which they 
were to acquire in serving in such a campaign, 
under so famed and brilliant a commander. 

The fleet which awaited the army at Plym- 
outh consisted of three hundred vessels. The 
expedition was detained for a long time in the 

* See map on page 1 10, 



104 King Eichard II. 

The ships of those days. Plymouth. 

port, waiting for a fair wind and good weather. 
At length the favorable time arrived. The 
army embarked, and the ships set sail in sight 
of a vast assemblage, formed by people of the 
surrounding country, who crowded the shores 
to witness the spectacle. 

The ships of those times were not large, and, 
judging from some of the pictures that have 
come down to us, they were of very odd con- 
struction. On the adjoining page is a copy of 
one of these pictures, from an ancient manu- 
script of about this time. 

These pictures, however, are evidently in- 
tended rather as symbols of ships, as it were, 
than literally correct representations of them. 
Still, we can deduce from them some general 
idea of the form and structure actually employ- 
ed in the naval architecture of those times. 

Prince Edward's fleet had a prosperous voy- 
age, and his army landed safely in Grascony. 
Soon after landing he commenced his march 
through the country to the eastward, pillaging, 
burning, and destroying wherever he went. 
The inhabitants of the country, whom the prog- 
ress of his march thus overwhelmed with ruin, 
had nothing whatever to do with the quarrel 
between his father and the King of France. It 
made very little difference to them under whose 



Battle of Poictiers. 107 

The prince ravages the country. 

reign they lived. It is not at all unlikely that 
far the greater portion of them had never even 
heard of the quarrel. They were quietly en- 
gaged in their various industrial pursuits, dream- 
ing probably of no danger, until the advance of 
this army, coming upon them mysteriously, no 
one knew whither, like a plague, or a tornado, 
or a great conflagration, drove them from their 
homes, and sent them flying about the country 
in all directions in terror and despair. The 
prince enjoyed the credit and the fame of being 
a generous and magnanimous prince. But his 
generosity and magnanimity were only shown 
toward knights, and nobles, and princes like 
himself, for it was only when such as these were 
the objects of these virtues that he could gain 
credit and fame by the display of them. 

In this march of devastation and destruction 
the prince overran all the southern part of 
France. One of his attendants in this campaign, 
a knight who served in the prince's household, 
in a letter which he wrote back to England from 
Bordeaux, gave the following summary of the 
results of the expedition : 

'* i&2 lort **fo* tftus abroad fn tfie countrfe of tots 
enfmics efflftt totoole toeefces, anli rested not past eleben 
Tiafes in all ttoose places totocre toe came. Enfi fcnoto ft 
for certefne ttoat since ttofs toarre uejjan against ttoe 



108 King Richard II. [A.D.1356. 

Progress of the Black Prince. The country laid waste. 

Sfxzxiz\) fefnfl, $e tiati neuer sucfi losse or ttestructfon as 
$e |)atf) fjatr fn tins fournfe ; for tfje countries atitr flooTi 
totones tot)fct> toere toasteli fn tins fournfe founti to tfje 
B fnfl of prance euerfe geare more to tije maf ntafnance 
of |)fs toarre ttjan ijaif fjis realme ijatj) fioon fcesf&e, er= 
cept, #c. 



After having thus laid waste the southern 
coast, the prince turned his course northward, 
toward the heart of the country, carrying de- 
vastation and destruction with him wherever he 
came. He advanced through Auvergne and 
Berri, two provinces in the central part of 
France. His army was not very large, for it 
consisted of only about eight thousand men. 
It was, however, very compact and efficient, and 
the prince advanced at the head of it in a very 
slow and cautious manner. He depended for 
the sustenance of his soldiers on the supplies 
which he could obtain from the country itself. 
Accordingly, he moved slowly from town to 
town, so as not to fatigue his soldiers by too 
long marches, nor exhaust them by too frequent 
battles. "When he was entered anie towne, 7 ' 
says the old chronicler, "that was sufficientlie 
stored of things necessarie, he would tarrie there 
two or three daies to refresh his soldiers and 
men of warre, and when they dislodged they 
would strike out the heads of the wine vessels, 




rjtsayomie ijj 

S P A T " y "\.. *?-. 



Battle of Poictiers. Ill 



The King of France comes to meet the Black Prince. 



and burne the wheat, oats, and barlie, and all 
other things which they could not take with 
them, to the intent that their enimies should nc , 
therewith be sustained and nourished." 

At length, while the prince was advancing 
through the province of Berri, and approaching 
the Kiver Loire, he learned that the King of 
France, John, had assembled a great army at 
Paris, and was coming down to meet him. 
Large detachments from this army had already 
advanced as far as the banks of the Loire, and 
all the important points on that river had been 
taken possession of, and were strongly guarded 
by them. The king himself, at the head of the 
main force, had reached Chartres, and was rap- 
idly advancing. The prince heard this news at 
a certain castle which he had taken, and where 
he had stopped some days to refresh his men. 

A council of war was held to determine what 
should be done. The prevailing voice at this 
council was in favor of not attempting to cross 
the Loire in the face of such an enemy, but of 
turning to the westward toward the province 
of Poitou, through which a way of retreat to 
the southward would be open in case a retreat 
should be necessary. The prince determined 
to accept this advice, and so he put his army in 
motion toward the town of Romorantin. 



112 King Richard II. 

Ambuscade near Romorantin. reconnoitring party. 

Now the King of France had sent a detach- 
ment of his troops, under the command of three 
famous knights, across the Loire. This detach- 
ment consisted of about three hundred horse- 
men, all armed from head to foot, and mounted 
on swift chargers. This squadron had been 
hovering in the neighborhood of the English 
army for some days, watching for an opportu- 
nity to attack them, but without success. Now, 
foreseeing that Edward would attempt to enter 
Romorantin, they pushed forward in a stealthy 
manner to the neighborhood of that town, and 
placed themselves in ambush at the sides of a 
narrow and solitary gorge in the mountains, 
through which they knew the English must 
necessarily pass. 

On the same day that the French knights 
formed this ambush, several of the commanders 
in Edward's army asked leave to take a troop 
of two hundred men from the English army, 
and ride forward to the gates of the town, in 
order to reconnoitre the place, and ascertain 
whether the way was clear for the main body 
of the army to approach. Edward gave them 
permission, and they set forward. As might 
have been expected, they fell into the snare 
which the French knights had laid for them. 
The Frenchmen remained quiet and still in their 



Battle of Poictiers. 113 

The English troop surprised. The French surprised in their turn. 

hiding-places, and allowed the English to pass 
on through the defile. Then, as soon as they 
had passed, the French rnshed out and galloped 
after them, with their spears in their rests, all 
ready for a charge. 

The English troop, hearing the sound of the 
galloping of horses in the road behind them, 
turned round to see what was coming. To their 
dismay, they found that a troop of their enemies 
was close upon them, and that they were hem- 
med in between them and the town. A furious 
battle ensued. The English, though they were 
somewhat fewer in number than the French, 
seem to have been made desperate by their dan- 
ger, and they fought like tigers. For a time it 
was uncertain which way the contest would 
turn, but at length, while the victory was still 
undecided, the van of the main body of the En- 
glish army began to arrive upon the ground. 
The French now saw that they were in danger 
of being overpowered with numbers, and they 
immediately began to retreat. They fled in the 
direction of the town. The English followed 
them in a headlong pursuit, filling the air with 
their shouts, and with the clanking of their iron 
armor as the horses galloped furiously along. 

At length they reached the gates of the town, 
and the whole throng of horsemen, pursuers 

H 



114 King Richard II. 

The French retreat to the castle. 

and pursued, pressed in together. The French 
succeeded in reaching the castle, and, as soon as 
they got in, they shut the gates and secured 
themselves there, but the English got possession 
of the town. As soon as Edward came in, he 
sent a summons to the people in the castle to 
surrender. They refused. Edward then or- 
dered his men to prepare for an assault on the 
following day. 

Accordingly, on the following day the assault 
was made. The battle was continued all day, 
but without success on the part of the assailants, 
and when the evening came on Edward was 
obliged to call off his men. 

The next morning, at a very early hour, the 
men were called to arms again. A new assault- 
ing force was organized, and at sunrise the trum- 
pet sounded the order for them to advance to 
the attack. Prince Edward himself took the 
command at this trial, and by his presence and 
his example incited the men to make the great- 
est possible efforts to batter down the gates and 
to scale the walls. Edward was excited to a 
high degree of resentment and rage against the 
garrison of the castle, not only on account of the 
general obstinacy of their resistance, but be- 
cause, on the preceding day, a squire, who was 
attendant upon him, and to whom he was strong- 



Battle of Poictiers. 117 

The castle besieged. Crossing the ditch. Engines. 

ly attached, was killed at his side by a stone 
hurled from the castle wall. When he saw this 
man fall, he took a solemn oath that he would 
never leave the place until he had the castle and 
all that were in it in his power. 

But, notwithstanding all the efforts of his sol- 
diers, the castle still held out. Edward's troops 
thronged the margin of the ditch, and shot ar- 
rows so incessantly at the battlements that the 
garrison could scarcely show themselves for an 
instant on the walls. Finally, they made hur- 
dles and floats of various kinds, by means of 
which large numbers succeeded, half by swim- 
ming and half by floating, to get across the 
ditch, and then began to dig in under the wall, 
while the garrison attempted to stop their work 
by throwing down big stones upon their heads, 
and pots of hot lime to eat out their eyes. 

At another part the besiegers constructed 
great engines, such as were used in those days, 
in the absence of cannon, for throwing rocks 
and heavy beams of wood, to batter the walls. 
These machines also threw a certain extraordi- 
nary combustible substance called Greek fire. 
It was this Greek fire that, in the end, turned 
the scale of victory, for it caught in the lower 
court of the castle, where it burned so furiously 
that it baffled all the efforts of the besieged to 



118 King Richaed II. [A.D.1356. 

The castle taken. King John and his four sons. 

extinguish it, and at length they were compel- 
led to surrender. Edward made the principal 
commanders prisoners, but he let the others go 
free. The castle itself he utterly destroyed. 

Having thus finished this work, Edward re- 
sumed his march, passing on to the westward 
through Touraine, to avoid the French king, 
who he knew was coming down upon him from 
the direction of Chartres at the head of an over- 
whelming army. King John advanced to the 
Loire, and sending different detachments of his 
army to different points, with orders to cross at 
any bridges that they could find, he himself 
came to Blois, where he crossed the river to 
Amboise, and thence proceeded to Loches. 
Here he learned that the English were moving 
off to the westward, through Touraine, in hopes 
to make their escape. He set off after them at 
full speed. 

He had four sons with him in his army, all 
young men. Their names were Charles, Louis, 
John, and Philip. 

At length the two armies began to approach 
each other near the town of Poictiers. 

In the mean time, while the crisis had thus 
been gradually approaching, the Pope, who was 
at this time residing at Avignon in France, sent 
one of his cardinals to act as intercessor between 



Battle of Poictiers. 119 

Attempt of the Pope's legate to make peace. 

the belligerents, in hopes of bringing them to a 
peace. At the time when the two armies had 
drawn near to each other and the battle seem- 
ed imminent, the cardinal was at Poictiers, and 
just as the King of France was marshaling his 
troops in the order of battle, and preparing for 
the onset, the cardinal, at the head of his suite 
of attendants, galloped out to the king's camp, 
and, riding up to him at full speed, he begged 
him to pause a moment that he might speak to 
him. 

The king gave him leave to speak, and he 
thus began : 

"Most dear sire," said he, "you have here 
with you a great and powerful army, command- 
ed by the flower of the knighthood of your 
whole kingdom. The English, compared with 
you, are but a handful. They are wholly un- 
able to resist you. You can make whatever 
terms with them you please, and it will be far 
more honorable and praiseworthy in you to 
spare their lives, and the lives of your gallant 
followers, by making peace with them on such 
terms as you may think right, without a battle, 
than to fight with them and destroy them. I 
entreat you, therefore, sire, that before you pro- 
ceed any farther, you will allow me to go to the 
English camp to represent to the prince the 



120 King Eichard II. 

Negotiations of the Pope 1 ;: .egate. The English camp. 

great danger he is in, ana to see what terms yon 
can make with him." 

"Very well," replied the king. "We have 
no objection. Go, bnt make haste back again." 

The cardinal immediately set off, and rode 
with all speed into the English camp. The En- 
glish troops had posted themselves at a spot 
where they were in a great measure concealed 
and protected among hedges, vineyards, and 
groves. The cardinal advanced throngh a nar< 
row lane, and came up to the English prince at 
last, whom he found in a vineyard. The prince 
was on foot, and was surrounded by knights 
and armed men, with whom he was arranging 
the plan of the battle. 

The prince received the cardinal very gra- 
ciously, and heard what he had to say. The 
cardinal represented to him how overwhelming 
was the force which the King of France had 
brought against him, and how imminent the 
danger was that he and all his forces would be 
totally destroyed in case of a conflict, and urged 
him, for the sake of humanity as well as from a 
proper regard for his own interest, to enter into 
negotiations for peace. 

Prince Edward replied that he had no objec- 
tion to enter into such negotiations, and that he 
was willing to accept of terms of peace, pro- 



Battle of Poictiers. 121 

The cardinal obtain* :i truce. The king's pavilion. 

vided his own honor and that of his army were 
saved. 

The cardinal then returned to the King of 
France, and reported to him what the prince 
had said, and he entreated the king to grant a 
truce until the next morning, in order to afford 
time for the negotiations. 

The knights and barons that were around the 
king were very unwilling that he should listen 
to this proposal. They were fierce for the bat- 
tle, and could not brook the idea of delay. But 
the cardinal was so urgent, and he pleaded so 
strongly and so eloquently for peace, that, final- 
ly, the king yielded. 

" But we will not leave our posts," said he. 
" We will remain on the ground ready for the 
onset to-morrow morning, unless our terms are 
accepted before that time." 

So they brought the royal tent, which was a 
magnificent pavilion of red silk, and pitched it 
on the field for the king. The army were dis- 
missed to their quarters until the following day. 

The time when this took place was early in 
the morning. The day was Sunday. During 
all the rest of the day the cardinal was employ- 
ed in riding back and forth between the two 
armies, conveying proposals and counter-propo- 
sals, and doing all in his power to effect an ar- 



122 King Eichard II. 

King John' s demands. Prince Edward will not yield to them. 

rangement. But all his efforts were unsuccess- 
ful. King John demanded that four of the prin- 
cipal persons in Edward's army should be giv- 
en up unconditionally to his will, and that the 
whole army should surrender themselves as 
prisoners of war. This Prince Edward would 
not consent to. He was willing, he said, to give 
up all the French prisoners that he had in cus- 
tody, and also to restore all the castles and towns 
which he had taken from the French. He was 
also willing to bind himself for seven years not 
to take up arms against the King of France. 
But all this did not satisfy John. He finally 
offered that, if the prince would surrender him- 
self and one hundred knights as prisoners of 
war, he would let the rest of the army go free, 
and declared that that was his ultimatum. 
Prince Edward positively refused to accept any 
such conditions, and so the cardinal, greatly dis- 
appointed at the failure of his efforts, gave up 
the case as hopeless, and returned with a sad 
and sorrowful heart to Poictiers. 

An anecdote is related in this connection by 
one of the ancient chroniclers, which illustrates 
curiously some of the ideas and manners of those 
times. During the course of the day, while the 
truce was in force, and the cardinal was going 
back and forth between the two armies, parties 



Battle of Poictiers. 123 

Story of the two knights. Coats of arms. 

of knights belonging to the two encampments 
rode out from time to time from their own quar- 
ters along the lines of the enemy, to see what 
was to be seen. In these cases they sometimes 
met each other, and held conversation together, 
both parties being bound in honor by the truce 
not to commit any act of hostility. There was 
a certain English knight, named Sir John Chan- 
dos, who in this way met a French knight 
named Clermont. Both these knights were 
mounted and fully armed. It was the custom 
in those days for each knight to have something 
peculiar in the style of his armor to distinguish 
him from the rest, and it was particularly the 
usage for each one to have a certain device and 
motto on his shield, or on some other conspic- 
uous position of his clothing. These devices 
and mottoes are the origin of the coats of arms 
in use at the present day. 

It happened that the device of these two 
knights was nearly the same. It consisted of a 
representation of the Virgin Mary embroidered 
in blue, and surrounded by a radiance of sun- 
beams. Clermont, on perceiving that the de- 
vice of Chandos was so similar to his own, call- 
ed out to him when he came near, demanding, 

"How long is it, sir, since you have taken 
the liberty to wear my arms?" 



124 King Bichaed II. 



Quarrel between the two knights. Preparations for the battle. 

" It is you yourself who are wearing mine," 
said Chandos. 

"'It is false," replied Clermont; "and if it 
were not for the truce, I would soon show you 
to whom that device rightfully belongs." 

" Yery well," replied Chandos. " To-mor- 
row, when the truce is over, you will find me 
on the field ready to settle the question with 
you by force of arms." 

With that the angry noblemen parted, and 
each rode back to his own lines. 

Early on Monday morning both armies pre- 
pared for battle. The cardinal, however, being 
extremely unwilling to give up all hope of pre- 
venting the conflict, came out again, at a very 
early hour, to the French camp, and made an 
effort to renew the negotiations. But the king 
peremptorily refused to listen to him, and or- 
dered him to be gone. He would not listen, he 
said, to any more pretended treaties or pacifica- 
tions. So the cardinal perceived that he must 
go away, and leave the armies to their fate. He 
called at Prince Edward's camp and bade him 
farewell, saying that he had done all in his pow- 
er to save him, but it was of no avail. He then 
returned to Poictiers. 

The two armies now prepared for battle. The 
King of France clothed himself in his royal ar- 



Battle of Poictiers. 125 

English position. The horses and the barbed arrows. 

mor, and nineteen of his knights were armed in 
the same manner, in order to prevent the enemy 
from being able to single ont the king on the 
field. This was a common stratagem employed 
on such occasions. The English were strongly 
posted on a hill side, among vineyards and 
groves. The approach to their position was 
through a sort of lane bordered by hedges. The 
English archers were posted along these hedges, 
and when the French troops attempted to ad- 
vance, the archers poured such a shower of 
barbed arrows into the horses' sides, that they 
soon threw them into confusion. The barbed 
arrows could not be withdrawn, and the horses, 
terrified with the stinging pain, would rear, and 
plunge, and turn round upon those behind them, 
until at length the lane was filled with horses 
and horsemen piled together in confusion. Now, 
when once a scene of confusion like this oc- 
curred upon a field of battle, it was almost im- 
possible to recover from it, for the iron armor 
which these knights wore was so heavy and so 
cumbersome, that when once they were un- 
horsed they could not mount again, and some- 
times could not even rise, but writhed and strug- 
gled helplessly on the ground until their squires 
came to relieve them. 

The battle raged for many hours, but, con- 



126 King Kichakd II. [A.D.1356. 

The English victorious. Fate of the king's sons. 

trary to the universal expectation, the English 
were every where victorious. Whether this 
was owing to the superior discipline of the En- 
glish troops, or to the reckless desperation with 
which their situation inspired them, or to the 
compact disposition that the prince had made 
of his forces, or to the shelter and protection af- 
forded by the trees, and hedges, and vines, 
among which they were posted, or to the supe- 
rior talents of the Black Prince as a command- 
ing officer, or to all these causes combined, it is 
impossible to say. The result was, however, 
that the French were every where overcome, 
thrown into confusion, and put to flight. Three 
of the French king's sons were led off early 
from the field, their attendants excusing their 
flight by their anxiety to save the princes from 
being taken prisoners or put to death. A large 
squadron were driven off on the road to Poic- 
tiers. The inhabitants of Poictiers, seeing them 
coming, shut the gates to keep them out, and 
the horsemen, pursuers and pursued, became 
jammed together in a confused mass at the gates, 
and on the causeway leading to them, where 
they trampled upon and killed each other by 
hundreds. In every other direction, too, detach- 
ed portions of the two armies were engaged in 
desperate conflicts, and the air was filled with 



Battle of Poictiers. 127 

The victory announced to the prince. The men called in. 

the clangor of arms, the notes of the trumpets, 
the shouts of the victors, and the shrieks and 
groans of the wounded and dying. 

At length Sir John Chandos, who had fought 
in company with Prince Edward all the day, 
advanced to the prince, and announced to him 
that he thought the battle was over. 

"Victory!" said he, "victory! The enemy 
is beaten and driven wholly off the ground. It 
is time to halt and to call in our men. They 
are getting greatly scattered. I have taken a 
survey of the ground, and I do not see any 
where any French banners flying, or any con- 
siderable bodies of French troops remaining. 
The whole army is dispersed." 

So the king gave orders to halt, and the trum- 
pets blew the signal for the men to cease from 
the pursuit of their enemies, and to gather again 
around the prince's banner. They set up the 
banner upon a high bush, near where the prince 
was standing, and the minstrels, gathering 
around it, began to play in honor of the vic- 
tory, while the trumpets in the distance were 
sounding to recall the men. 

The officers of the prince's household brought 
the royal tent, a beautiful pavilion of crimson 
silk, and pitched it on the spot. They brought 
wine, too, and other refreshments ; and as the 



128 King Bichakd II. 

C athering at the prince's tent. Two barons sent to look for the king. 

knights, and barons, and other noble warriors 
arrived at the tent, the prince offered them re- 
freshments, and received their congratulations 
on the great deliverance which they had 
achieved. A great many prisoners were brought 
in by the returning knights to be held for ran- 
som. 

While the knights and nobles were thus re- 
joicing together around the prince's tent, the 
prince asked if any one knew what had become 
of the King of France. No one could answer. 
So the prince dispatched two trusty barons to 
ride over the field and see if they could learn 
any tidings of him. The barons mounted their 
horses at the door of the pavilion and rode 
away. They proceeded first to a small hillock 
which promised to afford a good view. When 
they reached the top of this hillock, they saw 
at some distance a crowd of men-at-arms com- 
ing along together at a certain part of the field. 
They were on foot, and were advancing very 
slowly, and there seemed to be some peculiar 
excitement among them, for they were crowd- 
ing and pushing each other in a remarkable 
manner. The truth was, that the men had got 
the King of France and his youngest son Philip 
in their possession, and were attempting to bring 
them in to the prince's tent, but were quarrel- 



Battle of Poictiers. 129 



The King of France and his eon taken prisoners. Quarrel about them. 

ing among themselves as they came along, be- 
ing unable to decide which of them was entitled 
to the custody of the prisoners. The barons im- 
mediately put spurs to their horses, and galloped 
down the hill to the spot, and demanded what 
was the matter. The people said that it was 
the King of France and his son who had been 
made prisoners, and that there were no less than 
ten knights and squires that claimed them. 
These men were wrangling and contending to- 
gether with so much violence and noise that 
there was danger that the king and the young 
prince would be pulled to pieces by them. The 
king, in the mean time, was entreating them to 
be quiet, and begging them to deal gently with 
them, and take them at once to Prince Ed- 
ward's tent. 

" Gentlemen, gentlemen," said he, " I pray 
you to desist, and conduct me and my son in a 
courteous manner to my cousin the prince, and 
do not make such a riot about us. There will 
be ransom enough for you all." 

The contending knights and barons, howev- 
er, paid little heed to these words, but went on 
vociferating, "It is /that took him." 

" I tell you he is my prisoner." 

" No, no, we took him. Let him alone. He 
belongs to us." 



130 King Bichard II. 

The two barons take possession of the prisoners. 



The two barons pressed their horses forward 
into the midst of the crowd, and drove the 
knights back. They ordered them all, in the 
name of the prince, to let go the prisoners and 
retire, and they threatened to cut down on the 
spot any man who refused to obey. The bar- 
ons then dismounted, and, making a profound 
reverence before the king, they took him and 
his son under their protection, and conducted 
them to the prince's tent. 

The prince received the royal prisoners in 
the kindest and most respectful manner. He 
made a very low obeisance to the king, and 
treated him in every respect with the utmost 
consideration. He provided him with every 
thing necessary for his comfort, and ordered re- 
freshments to be brought, which refreshments 
he presented to the king himself, as if he were 
an honored and distinguished guest instead of 
a helpless prisoner. 

Although there were so many English knights 
and barons who claimed the honor of having 
made the King of France prisoner, the person 
to whom he really had surrendered was a French 
knight named Denys. Denys had formerly 
lived in France, but he had killed a man in a 
quarrel there, and for this crime his property 
had been confiscated, and he had been banished 



Battle of Poictiers. 131 

Denys. His previous adventures. The king's surrender to him. 

from the realm. He had then gone to England, 
where he had entered into the service of the 
king, and, finally, had joined the expedition of 
the Prince of Wales. This Deirys happened to 
be in the part of the field where the King of 
France and his son Philip were engaged. The 
king was desperately beset by his foes, who were 
calling upon him all around in English to sur- 
render. They did not wish to kill him, pre- 
ferring to take him prisoner for the sake of the 
ransom. The king was not willing to surren- 
der to any person of inferior rank, so he con- 
tinued the struggle, though almost overpower- 
ed. Just then Denys came up, and, calling out 
to him in French, advised him to surrender. 
The king was much pleased to hear the sound 
of his own language, and he called out, 

" To whom shall I surrender ? Who are 
you ?" 

" I am a French knight," said Denys ; "I was 
banished from France, and I now serve the En- 
glish prince. Surrender to me." 

" Where is the prince?" said the king. "If 
I could see him I would speak to him." 

" He is not here," said Denys ; " but you had 
better surrender to me, and I will take you im- 
mediately to the part of the field where he is." 

So the king drew off his gauntlet, and gave 



132 King Richard II. [A.D.1356. 

Prince Edward makes a supper for his prisoners. 

it to Denys as a token that he surrendered to 
him ; but all the English knights who were pres- 
ent crowded around, and claimed the prisoner 
as theirs. Denys attempted to conduct the king 
to Prince Edward, all the knights accompany- 
ing him, and struggling to get possession ofihs 
prisoner by the way. It was while the conten- 
tion between Denys and these his competitors 
was going on, that the two barons rode up, and 
rescued the king and his son from the danger 
they were in. 

That night Prince Edward made a sumptu- 
ous supper for the king and his son. The ta- 
bles were spread in the prince's pavilion. The 
greater part of the French knights and barons 
who had been taken prisoners were invited to 
this banquet. The king and his son, with a 
few French nobles of high rank, were placed at 
an elevated table superbly appointed and ar- 
ranged. There were side tables set for the 
squires and knights of lower degree. Prince 
Edward, instead of seating himself at the table 
with the king, took his place as an attendant, 
and served the king while he ate, notwithstand- 
ing all the entreaties of the king that he would 
not do so. He said that he was not worthy to 
sit at the table of so great a king and of so val- 



Battle of Poictiers. 133 

Generous demeanor of the prince. 

iant a man as the king had shown himself to be 
that day. 

In a word, in all his demeanor toward the 
king, instead of triumphing over him, and boast- 
ing of the victory which he had achieved, he 
did every thing in his power to soothe and as- 
suage the fallen monarch's sorrow, and to di- 
minish his chagrin. 

11 You must not allow yourself to be dejected, 
sire," said he, "because the fortune of war has 
turned against you this day. By the manner 
in which you acquitted yourself on the field, 
you have gained imperishable renown; and 
though, in the decision of divine Providence, the 
battle has gone against you for the moment, you 
have nothing personally to fear either for your- 
self or for your son. You may rely with per- 
fect confidence upon receiving the most honor- 
able treatment from my father. I am sure that 
he will show you every attention in his power, 
and that he will arrange for your ransom in so 
liberal and generous a spirit that you and he 
will henceforth become warm and constant 
friends." 

This kind and respectful treatment of his 
prisoners made a very strong impression upon 
the minds of all the French knights and nobles, 
and they were warm in their praises of the mag- 



134 King Richard II. 

Disposition of the prisoners. English prisoners. - Douglas. 

nanimity of their victorious enemy. He treated 
these knights themselves, too, in the same gem 
erous manner. He liberated a large number of 
them on their simple promise that they would 
send him the sums which he named respective- 
ly for their ransoms. 

Although Edward was thus, on the whole, 
victorious in this battle, still many of the En- 
glish knights were killed, and quite a number 
were taken prisoners and carried off by the 
French to be held for ranson. One of these 
prisoners, a Scotch knight named Douglas, made 
his escape after his capture in a very singular 
manner. He was standing in his armor among 
his captors late in the evening, at a place at 
some distance from the field, where the French 
had taken him and some other prisoners for 
safety, and the French were about to take off 
his armor, which, from its magnificence, led them 
to suppose that he was a person of high rank 
and importance, as he really was, and that a 
grand ransom could be obtained for him, when 
another Scotch knight, named Ramsay, sudden- 
ly fixing his eyes upon him, pretended to be in 
a great rage, and, advancing toward him, ex- 
claimed, 

" You miserable wretch ! How comes it that 
you dare to deck yourself out in this way in 



Battle of Poictieks. 135 



Douglas's extraordinary escape from his captors. 

your master's armor ? You have murdered and 
robbed him, I suppose. Come here and pull off 
rav boots." 

Douglas understood at once Ramsay's design, 
and so, with pretended tremblings, and looks of 
guilt and fear, he came to Ramsay and pulled 
off one of his boots. Ramsay took up the boot 
and struck Douglas upon the head with it. The 
other English prisoners, wondering, asked Ram- 
say what he meant. 

" That is Lord Douglas," said they. 

" Lord Douglas ?" repeated Ramsay, in a tone 
of contempt. " No such thing. It is his serv- 
ant. He has killed his master, I suppose, and 
stolen his armor." Then, turning to Douglas 
and brandishing the boot over him again, he 
cried out, 

"Off with you, you villain! Go and look 
over the field, and find your master's body, and 
when you have found it come back and tell 
me, that I may at least give him a decent bur- 
ial." 

So saying, he took out forty shillings, and gave 
the money to the Frenchmen as the ransom of 
the pretended servant, and then drove Douglas 
off, beating him with the boot and saying, 

" Away with you ! Begone !" 

Douglas bore this all very patiently, and went 



136 King Eichakd II. [A.D.1356. 

Prince Edward conveys the King of France to London. 

away with the air of a detected impostor, and 
soon got back safely to the English camp. 

After the battle of Poictiers Prince Edward 
moved on toward the westward with his army, 
taking with him his royal prisoners, and stop- 
ping at all the large towns on his way to cele- 
brate his victory with feastings and rejoicings. 
At last he reached Bordeaux on the coast, and 
from Bordeaux, in due time, he set sail with his 
prisoners for London. In the mean time, news 
of the victory, and of the coming of the King 
of France as prisoner to England, had reached 
London, and great preparations were made there 
for the reception of the prince. The prince took 
a fleet of ships and a large force of armed men 
with him on the voyage, being afraid that the 
French would attempt to intercept him and res- 
cue the prisoners. The King of France and his 
suite had a ship to themselves. The fleet land- 
ed at a place called Sandwich, on the southern 
coast of England, and then the cortege of the 
prince proceeded by slow journeys to London. 

The party was received at the capital with 
great pomp and parade. Besides the caval- 
cades of nobles, knights, and barons which came 
out to meet them, all the different trades and 
companies of London appeared in their respect- 



Battle of Poictiers. 137 

Entrance into London. Magnanimous treatment of the prisoner. 



ive uniforms, with flags and banners, and with 
the various emblems and insignia of their sev- 
eral crafts. All London nocked into the streets 
to see the show. 

One would have supposed, however, from the 
arrangements which Prince Edward made in 
entering the city, that the person whom all this 
pomp and parade was intended to honor was 
not himself, but the king his captive ; for, instead 
of riding at the head of the procession in tri- 
umph, with the King of France and his son fol- 
lowing as captives in his train, he gave the king 
the place of honor, while he himself took the 
station of one of his attendants. The king was 
mounted on a white charger very splendidly 
caparisoned, while Prince Edward rode a small 
black horse by his side. The procession moved 
in this way through the principal streets of the 
city to a palace on the banks of the river at the 
West End, which had been fitted up in the most 
complete and sumptuous manner for the king's 
reception. Soon after this, the King of England, 
Prince Edward's father, came to pay his captive 
cousin a visit, and, though he retained him as a 
captive, he treated him in other respects with 
every mark of consideration and honor. 

The King of France and his son remained 
captives in England for some time. The king 



138 King Eichard II. [A.D. 1360. 

The war ended. The king ransomed. Prince Edward's renown. 

and the queen treated them with great consid- 
eration. The j often visited King John at his 
palace, and they invited him to the most sump- 
tuous entertainments and celebrations made ex- 
pressly to do him honor. 

In the mean time, the war between England 
and France still went on. Many battles were 
fought, and many towns and castles were be- 
sieged and taken. But, after all, no great prog- 
ress was made on either side, and at length, 
when both parties had become wearied and ex- 
hausted in the struggle, a peace was concluded, 
and King John, having paid a suitable ransom 
for himself and for those who were with him, 
was allowed to return home. He had been in 
captivity for about five years. 

The conduct of Prince Edward at the battles 
of Crecy and of Poictiers, in both which con- 
tests the English fought against an immense su- 
periority of numbers, and the great eclat of such 
an achievement as capturing the French king, 
and conducting him a prisoner to London, join- 
ed to the noble generosity which he displayed 
in his treatment of his prisoners, made his name 
celebrated throughout the world. Every body 
was sounding the praises of the Black Prince, 
the heir apparent to the English throne, and 



Battle of Poictiers. 139 

Edward the heir apparent to the crown. 

anticipating the greatness and glory to which 
England would attain when he should become 
king. 

This was an event which might occur at any 
time, for King Edward his father was drawing 
gradually into the later years of life, and he 
himself was now nearly forty years of age. 



140 King Richard II. 



Prince Edward becomes Prince of Aquitaine. 



Chapter Y. 
Childhood of Richard. 

THE child of Edward the Black Prince, who 
afterward became Richard the Second, king 
of England, was born at Bordeaux, in the south- 
western part of France, in the year 1867, in the 
midst of a scene of great military bustle and ex- 
citement. The circumstances were these. 

When peace was finally made between En- 
gland and France, after the wars described in 
the last chapter were over, one of the results of 
the treaty which was made was that certain 
provinces in the southwestern part of France 
were ceded to England, and formed into a prin- 
cipality called Aquitaine, and this principality 
was placed under the dominion of the Black 
Prince. The title of the prince was thenceforth 
not only Prince of Wales, but also Prince of 
Aquitaine. The city of Bordeaux, near the 
mouth of the Graronne, as shown by the map,* 
was the chief city of Aquitaine. There the 
prince established his court, and reigned, as it 
were, for several years in great splendor. The 

* See map on page 110. 



Richard's Childhood. 1-il 

Various calls made upon him. Don Pedro. 

fame which, he had acquired attracted to his 
court a great number of knights and nobles 
from all lands, and whenever a great personage 
had any wrongs, real or imaginar}-, to be re- 
dressed, or any political end to gain which re- 
quired the force of arms, he was very likely to 
come to the Prince of Aquitaine, in order, if pos- 
sible, to secure his aid. Prince Edward was 
rather pleased than otherwise with these appli- 
cations, for he loved war much better than peace, 
and, though he evinced a great deal of modera- 
tion and generosity in his conduct in the treat- 
ment of his vanquished enemies, he was none 
the less really excited and pleased with the glory 
and renown which his victories gained him. 

About six months before Richard was born, 
while Edward was living with the princess, his 
wife, in Bordeaux, he received an application 
for aid from a certain Don Pedro, who claimed 
to be King of Navarre in Spain, but who had 
been expelled from his kingdom by his brother. 
There was also a certain James who claimed to 
be the King of Majorca, a large island in the 
Mediterranean Sea, who was in much the same 
situation in respect to his kingdom. Prince Ed- 
ward promised to aid Don Pedro in recovering 
his throne, and he forthwith began to make 
preparations to this end. He also promised 



142 King Eichakd II. 

Edward's plans and arrangements. Lord D'Albret 

James that, as soon as he had accomplished the 
work which he had undertaken for Don Pedro, 
he would fit out an expedition to Majorca, and 
so restore him too to his kingdom. 

The preparations which he made for the ex- 
pedition into Spain were prosecuted in a very 
vigorous manner. Don Pedro was destitute 
of means as well as of men, and Edward was 
obliged to raise a large sum of money for the 
provisioning and paying of his troops. His 
vassals, the nobles and barons of his principali- 
ty, were obliged to furnish the men, it being 
the custom in those times that each vassal should 
bring to his lord, in case of war, as many sol- 
diers as could be spared from among his own 
tenants and retainers — some fifty, some one 
hundred, and some two hundred, or even more, 
according to the extent and populousness of 
their estates. One of the nobles in Prince Ed- 
ward's service, named Lord D'Albret, had offer- 
ed to bring a thousand men. The prince had 
asked him on some public occasion, in presence 
of other knights and noblemen, how many men 
he could furnish for the expedition. 

" My lord," replied Lord D'Albret, " if you 
really wish for all the strength that I can fur 
nish, I can bring you a thousand lances, and still 
have enough at home to guard the country." - 



A.D.1366.] Richard's Childhood. 143 

Lord D' Albret offers a thousand men. 

The prince was surprised at this answer. He 
did not know, it seems, how powerful the barons 
of his principality were. 

" By my head !" said he, addressing Lord 
D' Albret and speaking in French, which was, 
of course, the language of Aquitaine, " that will 
be very handsome." 

He then turned to some English nobles who 
were near, and speaking in English, said it was 
worth while to rule in a country where one bar- 
on could attend his lord with a thousand lances. 
He was ashamed not to accept this offer, for, 
according to the ideas of these times, it would 
not be at all consistent with what was expected 
of a prince that he should not be able to main- 
tain and pay as many troops as his barons could 
bring him. So he said hastily, turning to D' Al- 
bret, that he engaged them all. 

Although, in the end, Don Pedro, if he suc- 
ceeded in regaining his kingdom, was to refund 
the expenses of the war, yet, in the first in- 
stance, it was necessary for the prince to raise 
the money, and he soon found that it would be 
very difficult for him to raise enough. He was 
unwilling to tax too heavily the subjects of his 
principality, and so, after collecting as much as 
he thought prudent in that way, he sent to En- 
gland to his father, explaining the nature and 



144 King Bichaed II. [AD. 1866. 

King Edward offers his aid. John of Gaunt. 

design of the proposed expedition, and soliciting 
his father's approval of it, and, at the same time, 
asking for aid in the way of funds. King Ed- 
ward replied, cordially approving of the enter- 
prise. He also promised to send on the prince's 
brother John, with a body of troops to accom- 
pany the expedition. This John was the one 
who has already been mentioned as born in 
Ghent, and who was called, on that account, 
John of Gaunt. He was also Duke of Lancas- 
ter, and is often designated by that name. Ed- 
ward was very much attached to his brother 
John, and was very much pleased to hear that 
he was coming to join him. 

The King of England also, Edward's father, 
made arrangements for sending to his son a 
large sum of money. This was of great assist- 
ance to him, but still he had not money enough. 
So he broke up his plate, both gold and silver, 
and caused it to be coined, in order to assist in 
filling his treasury. Still, notwithstanding all 
that he could do, he found it difficult to provide 
sufficient funds for the purchase of the provis- 
ions that he required, and for the pay of the men. 

It was rather late in the season when the 
prince first formed the plan of this expedition. 
He was very anxious to set out as soon as pos- 
sible, for he had the Pyrenees to cross, in order 



Bichard's Childhood. 145 

Why the princess wishes to have Edward's departure postponed. 



to pass from France into Spain, and it would be 
impossible, lie knew, to conduct an army over 
the mountains after the winter should set in; 
so he hastened his preparations as much as pos- 
sible. He was kept in a continued fever by his 
impatience, and by the various delays and dis- 
appointments which were constantly occurring. 
In the mean while, time moved on, and it began 
at length to be doubtful whether he should be 
ready to march before the winter should set in. 

To add to his perplexity, his wife begged him 
to postpone his departure till the spring, in or- 
der that he might remain at home with her un- 
til after their child should be born. She was 
dejected in spirits, and seemed particularly sad 
and sorrowful at the thought of her husband's 
going away to leave her at such a time. She 
knew, too, the undaunted recklessness with 
which he was accustomed to expose himself to 
danger in his campaigns, and if he went away 
she could not but think that it was uncertain 
whether he would ever return. 

Finally, the prince concluded to put off his 
departure until spring. This determination, 
however, in some sense increased his perplexi- 
ties, for now he had a large proportion of his 
force to maintain and pay through the winter. 
This made it necessary that he should curtail 



146 King Richard It. 

Prince Edward's letter to Lord DV.lbret. 

his plans in some degree, and, among other 
things, he resolved to notify the Baron D' Albret 
not to bring his whole complement of one thou- 
sand men. It was a great humiliation to him 
to do this after having formally agreed to en- 
gage the men, but he felt compelled, by the ne- 
cessity of the case, to do so, and he accordingly 
wrote to the baron the following letter : 

"My Lord D' Albret, 

" Whereas, out of our liberal bounty, we have 
retained you, with a thousand lances, to serve 
under us in the expedition which, through the 
grace of God, we intend speedily to undertake 
and briefly to finish, having duly considered 
the business, and the costs and expenses we are 
at, we have resolved that several of our vassals 
should remain at home in order to guard the 
territories. For these causes, it has been de- 
termined in our council that you shall serve in 
this expedition with two hundred lances only. 
You will choose the two hundred out from the 
rest, and the remainder you will leave at home 
to follow their usual occupations. 

"May God have you under his holy protec- 
tion. 

" Given at Bordeaux, the eighth day of December. 

"Edward." 



A.D.1366.] Richard's Childhood. 147 

Lord D'AIbrct is very angry. His determination. 

This letter was sealed with the great seal of 
the prince, and sent to D' Albret, who was in his 
own country, busily engaged in assembling and 
equipping his men, and making the other nec- 
essary preparations. The baron was exceed- 
ingly indignant when he received the letter. 
In those days, every man that was capable of 
bearing arms liked much better to be taken into 
the service of some prince or potentate going to 
war than to remain at home to cultivate the 
ground in quiet industry. D' Albret knew, there- 
fore, very well, that his vassals and retainers 
would be all greatly disappointed to learn that 
four fifths of their whole number were, after all, 
to remain at home, and then, besides this, his 
own importance in the campaign would be great- 
ly diminished by reducing the force under his 
command from one thousand to two hundred 
men. He was extremely angry when he read 
the letter. 

"How is this?" he exclaimed. "My lord 
the Prince of Wales trifles with me when he 
orders me to disband eight hundred knights 
and squires whom, by his command, I have re- 
tained, and have diverted from other means of 
obtainino- profit and honor." Then he called 
for a secretary , and said to him in a rage, 

"Write what I shall dictate to you." 



148 King Eichaed II. [A.D.1366. 



Lord D'Albret's letter to the prince. 



The secretary wrote as follows from his mas 
ter's dictation: 

"My deak Lokd, 
" I am marvelously surprised at the contents 
of the letter which you have sent me. I do not 
know and can not imagine what answer I can 
make. Your present orders will do me a great 
injury, and subject me to much blame. Foi 
all the men-at-arms whom I have retained by 
your command have already made their prep< 
arations for entering your service, and were 
only waiting your orders to march. By retain- 
ing them for your service I have prevented them 
from seeking honor and profit elsewhere. Some 
of the knights had actually made engagements 
to go beyond sea, to Jerusalem, to Constantino- 
ple, or to Russia, in order to advance themselves, 
and now, having relinquished these advanta- 
geous prospects in order to join your enterprise, 
they will be extremely displeased if they are 
left behind. I am myself equally displeased, 
and I can not conceive what I have done to de- 
serve such treatment. And I beg you to un- 
derstand, my lord, that I can not be separated 
from my men ; nor will they consent to be 
separated from each other. I am convinced 
that, if I dismiss any of them, they will all go." 



A.D.1366.] Richard's Childhood. 149 



Edward in want of money. 



Don Pedro pledges his three daughters. 



The baron added other words of the same 
tenor, and then, signing and sealing the letter, 
sent it to the prince. The prince was angry in 
his turn when he received this letter. 

" By my faith," said he, " this man D'Albret 
is altogether too great a man for my country, 
when he seeks thus to disobey an order from 
my council. But let him go where he pleases. 
We will perform this expedition, if it please 
God, without any of his thousand lances." 

This case presents a specimen of the perplex- 
ities and troubles in which the prince was in- 
volved during the winter, while organizing his 
expedition and preparing to set out in the 
spring. The want of money was the great dif- 
ficulty, for there was no lack of men. Don Pe- 
dro agreed, it is true, that when he recovered 
his kingdom he would pay back the advances 
which Edward had to make, but he was so un- 
principled a man that Edward knew very well 
that he could not trust to his promises unless 
he gave some security. So Don Pedro agreed 
to leave his three daughters in Edward's hands 
as hostages to secure the payment of the money. 

The names of the three princesses thus 
pledged as collateral security for money bor- 
rowed were Beatrice, Constance, and Isabel. 

At length, on the third day of April, the child 



150 King Richard II. [AD. 1367. 

The baptism of the young Prince Richard. 

was born. The princess was in a monastery at 
the time, called the monastery of St. Andrew, 
whither she had retired for privacy and quiet. 
Immediately after the event, Prince Edward, 
having made every thing ready before, gave or- 
ders that the expedition should set forward on 
the road to Spain. He himself was to follow 
as soon as the baptism of the child should be 
performed. The day on which the child was 
born was Wednesday, and Friday was fixed for 
the baptism. The baptism took place at noon, 
at a stone font in the church of the monastery. 
The King of Majorca, whom the prince had 
promised to restore to his kingdom, was one of 
the godfathers. The child was named Eichard. 

On the Sunday following the prince bade his 
wife and the little infant farewell, and set out 
from Bordeaux with great pomp, at the head 
of an immense cavalcade, and went on to join 
the expedition which was already on its way to 
Spain. 

The birth of Richard was an event of great 
importance, for he was not only the son of the 
Prince of Aquitaine, but he was the grandson 
of the King of England, and, of course, every 
one knew that he might one day be the King of 
England himself. Still, the probability was not 
very great that this would happen, at least for 



A.D.1367.] Richard's Childhood. 153 

Richard receives a visit from bis uncle John. 

a long period to come ; for, though his father, 
Prince Edward, was the oldest son of the King 
of England, he himself was not the oldest son 
of his father. He had a brother who was some 
years older than himself, and, of course, there 
were three lives that must be terminated before 
his turn should come to reign in England — his 
grandfather's, his father's, and his brother's. 

It happened that all these three lives were 
terminated in a comparatively brief period, so 
that Richard really became King of England 
before he grew up to be a man. 

The first important occurrence which took 
place at the monastery at Bordeaux, where lit- 
tle Richard remained with his mother after his 
father had gone, was the arrival of his uncle 
John, that is, John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lan- 
caster, who was on his way from England at 
the head of an army to accompany his brother 
into Spain. John stopped at Bordeaux to see 
the princess and the infant child. He was very 
joyfully received by the princess, and by all 
the ladies in attendance upon her. The prin- 
cess was very fond of her brother, and she was 
much pleased that he was going to join her 
husband in the war in Spain ; besides, he brought 
her late and full news from England. The duke, 
however, did not remain long at Bordeaux, but, 



154 King Kichabd II. 

Richard at Bordeaux. Don Pedro's troubles and perplexities. 

after a brief visit to his sister, he put himself 
again at the head of his troops, and hurried for- 
ward to overtake the prince, who was already 
far on his way toward the Pyrenees and Spain. 
Little Eichard remained in Bordeaux for 
three or four years. During this time he had 
his brother for a playmate, but he saw little of 
his father. It was some time before his father 
returned from Spain, and when he did return 
he came home much depressed in spirits, and 
harassed and vexed with many cares. He had 
succeeded, it is true, in conquering Don Pedro's 
enemies, and in placing Don Pedro himself 
again upon the throne ; but he had failed in 
getting back the money that he had expended. 
Don Pedro could not or would not repay him. 
What Prince Edward did with the three daugh- 
ters of the king that had been left with him as 
hostages I do not know. At any rate, he could 
not pay his debts with them, or raise money by 
means of them to silence his clamorous troops. 
He attempted to lay fresh taxes upon the peo- 
ple of Aquitaine. This awakened a great deal 
of discontent. The barons who had had disa- 
greements of any sort with Edward before, took 
advantage of this discontent to form plots against 
him, and at last several of them, D'Albret among 
the rest, whom he had mortally offended by 



Richard's Childhood. 155 

King C'harlea determines to call Prince Edward to account. 

countermanding his orders for the thousand 
men, combined together and sent to the King 
of France, complaining of the oppressions which 
they suffered under Edward's rule, and inviting 
him to come and help them free themselves. 
The king at once determined that he would do 
this. 

This King of France was, however, not King 
John, whom Edward had made prisoner and 
sent to London. King John had died, and the 
crown had descended to his successor, Charles 
the Fifth. 

King Charles determined first to send two 
commissioners to summon the Prince of Aqui- 
taine into his presence to give an account of 
himself. He did this under the pretext that 
Aquitaine was part of France, and that, conse- 
quently, Prince Edward was in some sense un- 
der his jurisdiction. 

The two commissioners, with their attendants, 
left Paris, and set out on their journey to Bor- 
deaux. People traveled very slowly in those 
days, and the commissioners were a long time 
on the way. At length, however, they reached 
Bordeaux. They arrived late in the evening, 
and took up their quarters at an inn. The next 
day they repaired to the monastery where the 
prince was residing. 



156 King Richaed II 

The commissioners arrive, and are received by the prince. 

They informed the attendants who received 
them at the monastery that they had been sent 
by the King of France with a message to the 
prince. The attendants, who were officers of 
the prince's court, informed the prince of the 
arrival of the strangers, and he ordered them to 
be brought into his presence. 

The commissioners, on being brought before 
the prince, bowed very low in token of rever- 
ence, and presented their credentials. The 
prince, after reading the credentials, and exam- 
ining the seals of the King of France by which 
they were authenticated, said to the commis- 
sioners, 

"It is very well. These papers show that 
you are duly commissioned embassadors from 
the King of France. You are welcome to our 
court. And you can now proceed to commu- 
nicate the message with which you have been 
charged." 

Of the two commissioners, one was a lawyer, 
and the other a knight. The knight bore the 
singular name of Caponnel de Caponnal. The 
lawyer, of course, was the principal speaker at 
the interview with the prince, and when the 
prince called for the communication which had 
been sent from the King of France, he drew 
forth a paper which he said contained what the 



Richard's Childhood. 157 

The lawyer reads the letter. 

King of France had to say, and which, he added, 
they, the commissioners, had promised faithful- 
ly to read in the prince's presence. 

The prince, wondering greatly what the pa- 
per could contain, ordered the lawyer to pro- 
ceed with the reading of it. 

The lawyer read as follows : 

" Charles, by the grace of God, King of 
France, to oar nephew the Prince of Wales and 
Aquitaine, health. 

" Whereas several prelates, barons, knights, 
universities, fraternities, and colleges of the coun- 
try and district of Gascony, residing and inhab- 
iting upon the borders of our realm, together 
with many others from the country and duchy 
of Aquitaine, have come before us in our court 
to claim justice for certain grievances and un- 
just oppressions which you, through weak coun- 
sel and foolish advice, have been induced to do 
them, and at which we are much astonished ; 

" Therefore, in order to obviate and remedy 
such things, we do take cognizance of their 
cause, insomuch that we, of our royal majesty 
and sovereignty, order and command you to ap- 
pear in our city of Paris in person, and that you 
show and present yourself before us in our 
chamber of Paris, to hear judgment pronounced 



158 King Kichard II. [A.D.1369. 



The prince is very much displeased. 



upon the aforesaid complaints and grievances 
done by you to our subjects, who claim to be 
heard, and to have the jurisdiction of our court. 

"Let there be no delay in obeying this sum- 
mons, but set out as speedily as possible after 
having heard this order read. 

" In witness whereof we have affixed our seal 
to these presents. 

"Given at Paris the twenty-fifth day of January, 1369. 

"Charles K." 

On hearing this letter read, the prince was 
filled with astonishment and indignation. He 
paused a moment, with his eyes fixed upon the 
commissioners, as if not knowing what to reply. 
At length, with an expression of bitter irony 
upon his countenance, he said, 

" We shall willingly appear at the appointed 
day at Paris, since the King of France sends for 
us, but it will be with our helmet on our head, 
and accompanied by sixty thousand men." 

The commissioners, seeing how much the 
prince was displeased, began immediately to en- 
treat him not to be angry with them as the 
bearers of the message. 

" Oh no," said the prince, " I am not in the 
least angry with you, but only with those that 
sent you hither. Your master, the King of 



A.D.1369.] Richard's Childhood. 159 



He dismisses the commissioners. 



France, has been exceedingly ill advised in thus 
pretending to claim jurisdiction over our do- 
minion of Aquitaine, and in taking the part of 
our discontented subjects against us, their right- 
ful sovereign. When he surrendered the prov- 
inces to the King of England, my father, as he 
did by solemn treaty, he relinquished forever 
all jurisdiction over them, and in the exercise 
of my government I acknowledge no superior 
except my father. Tell the King of France 
that is what I claim and will maintain. It shall 
cost a hundred thousand lives before it shall 
be otherwise." 

Having spoken these words in a calm and 
quiet, but very resolute and determined tone, 
the prince walked off out of the apartment, leav- 
ing the commissioners in a great state of aston- 
ishment and alarm. They seemed to know not 
what to do. 

Some of the courtiers came to them and ad- 
vised them to withdraw. "It is useless," said 
they, "for you to attempt any thing more. You 
have delivered your message faithfully, and the 
prince has given his answer. It is the only 
answer that he will give, you may depend, and 
you may as well return with it to the king." 

So the messengers went back to the inn, and 
on the evening of the same day they set out on 



160 King Richard II 

Indignation of the prince. He wishes to arrest the commissioners. 

their return to Paris. In the mean time, Prince 
Edward continued to feel extremely indignant 
at the message which he had received. The 
more he reflected upon it, indeed, the more an- 
gry he became. He felt as if he had been in- 
sulted in having had such a summons from a 
foreign potentate served upon him by a lawyer 
in his own house. The knights and barons 
around him, sharing his anger, proposed that 
they should pursue and seize the commission- 
ers, with a view of punishing them for their au- 
dacity in bringing such a message. At first the 
prince was unwilling to consent to this, as the 
persons of embassadors and messengers of all 
sorts sent from one sovereign to another were, 
in those days as now, considered sacred. At 
last, however, he said that he thought the men 
were hardly to be considered as the messengers 
of the King of France. 

"They are virtually," said he, "the messen-. 
gers of D' Albret and the other factious and re- 
bellious barons among our own subjects, who 
complained to the King of France and incited 
him to interfere in our affairs, and, as such, I 
should not be sorry to have them taken and 
punished." 

This was sufficient. The knights who heard 
it immediately sent off a small troop of horse- 



Richard's Childhood. 161 

The commissioners seized and imprisoned. 

men, who overtook the commissioners before 
they reached the frontier.- In order not to com- 
promise the prince, they said nothing about hav- 
ing been sent by him, but arrested the men on 
a charge of having taken a horse which did not 
belong to them from the inn. Under pretense 
of investigating this charge, they took the men 
to a neighboring town and shut them up in a 
castle there. 

Some of the attendants of the commissioners, 
who had come with them from France, made 
their escape, and, returning to Paris, they re- 
ported to the King of France all that had oc- 
curred. It now came his turn to be angry, and 
both parties began to prepare for war. 

The King of England took sides with his son, 
and so was drawn at once into the quarrel. Va- 
rious military expeditions were fitted out on 
both sides. Provinces were ravaged, and towns 
and castles were stormed. The Prince of Wales 
was overwhelmed with the troubles and per- 
plexities which surrounded him. His people 
were discontented, his finances were low, and 
the fortune of war often turned against him. 
His health, too, began to fail him, and he sank 
into a state of great dejection and despondency. 
To complete the sum of his misfortunes, his 
oldest son, Richard's brother, fell sick and died. 

L 



162 King Bichard II. 

Death of Richard' 3 brother. The prince determines to go to England. 

This was a fortunate event for Bichard, for it 
advanced him to the position of the oldest sur- 
viving son, and made him thus his father's heir. 
It brought him, too, one step nearer to the En- 
glish throne. Bichard was, however, at this 
time only four years old, and thus was too young 
to understand these things, and probably, sym- 
pathizing with his father and mother, he mourn- 
ed his brother's death. The parents, at any 
rate, were exceedingly grieved at the loss of 
their first-born child, and the despondency of 
the prince was greatly increased by the event. 

At last the physicians and counselors of Ed- 
ward advised that he should leave his princi- 
pality for a time and repair to England. They 
hoped that by the change of scene and air he 
might recover his spirits, and perhaps regain 
his health. The prince resolved on following 
this advice. So he made arrangements for leav- 
ing his principality under the government and 
care of his brother, John of Gaunt, and then or- 
dered a vessel to be made ready at Bordeaux 
to convey himself, the princess, and Bichard to 
England. 

When every thing was ready for his depart- 
ure, he convened an assembly of all the barons 
and knights of his dominions in a hall of audi- 
ence at Bordeaux, and there solemnly commit- 



i.D.1370.] Eichard's Childhood. 163 



Erince Edward's farewell speech. He sails for England. 

ted the charge of the principality to his brother 
John in the presence of them all. 

He said in the speech that he made to them 
on that occasion, that during all the time that 
he had been their prince, he had always main- 
tained them in peace, prosperity, and power, so 
far as depended on him, against all their ene- 
mies, and that now, in the hope of recovering 
his health, which was greatly impaired, he in- 
tended to return to England. He therefore 
earnestly besought them to place confidence in, 
and faithfully serve and obey, his brother, the 
Duke of Lancaster, as they had hitherto served 
and obeyed him. 

The barons all solemnly promised to obey 
these injunctions, and they took the oath of 
fealty and homage to the duke. They then bid 
the prince farewell, and he soon afterward em- 
barked on board the ship with his wife and son, 
and set sail for England. 

The fleet which accompanied the prince on 
the voyage, as convoy to the prince's ship, con- 
tained five hundred men-at-arms, and a large 
body of archers besides. This force was intend- 
ed to guard against the danger of being inter- 
cepted by the French on the way. The prince 
and the princess must, of course, have felt some 
solicitude on this account, but Eichard, being 



164 King Eichard II. [A.D.1370. 

Pleasant and prosperous voyage. Little Richard at sea. 

yet only four years old, was too young to con- 
cern himself with any such fears. So he play- 
ed about the ship during the voyage, untroubled 
by the anxieties and cares which weighed upon 
the spirits of his father and mother. 

The voyage was a very prosperous one. The 
weather was pleasant and the wind was fair, and 
after a few days' sail the fleet arrived safely at 
Southampton. The king, with his family and 
suite, disembarked. They remained two days 
at Southampton to refresh themselves after the 
voyage, and to allow the prince, who seemed to 
be growing worse rather than better, a little 
time to gather strength for the journey to Lon- 
don. When the time arrived for setting out, 
he was found too ill to travel by any of the or- 
dinary modes, and so they placed him upon a 
litter, and in this way the party set out for 
Windsor Castle. 

The party traveled by easy stages, and at 
length arrived at the castle. Here Eichard for 
the first time saw his grandfather, Edward the 
Third, King of England. They were all very 
kindly received by him. After remaining a 
short time at Windsor Castle, the prince, with 
his wife and Eichard, and the knights, and bar- 
ons, and other attendants who had come with 
him from Aquitaine, proceeded to a place call- 



A.D.1370.] Richard's Childhood. 165 

J ortrait of Edward .11. l.ichard'a first entrance iuto England. 




POETRAIT OF EDWARD THE THIRD, RICHARD'S GRANDFATHER. 



ed Birkhamstead, about twenty miles from Lon- 
don, and there took up his abode. 

And thus it was that Richard for the first 
time entered the country which had been the 
land of his ancestors for so long a time, and 
over which he was himself so soon to reign. 



166 King Richard II [A.D.1376. 

John of Gaunt. Hi3 thoughts in respect to the kingdom. 



Chapter VI. 
Accession to the Throne. 

YOUNGr Kichard lived in comparative re- 
tirement with his mother for about six 
years after his return to England. His father's 
sickness continued. Indeed, the prince was so 
feeble in body, and so dejected and desponding 
in mind, that he was well-nigh incapable of 
taking any part in public affairs. His brother, 
John of Graunt, Duke of Lancaster, remained for 
some time in Aquitaine, and was engaged in 
continual wars with France, but at length he 
too returned to England. He was a man of 
great energy of character and of great ambition, 
and he began to revolve the question in his 
mind whether, in case his brother, the Prince 
of Wales, should die, the inheritance of the 
kingdom of England should fall to him, or to 
Eichard, the son of his brother. 

"My brother Edward is older than I," he 
said to himself, " and if he should live till after 
our father the king dies, then I grant that he 
should succeed to the throne. But if he dies 
before the king, then it is better that I should 



Accession to the Throne. 167 

Laws of succession. Prince Edward grows worse. He dies. 

succeed to the throne, for his son Eichard is but 
a child, and is wholly unfit to reign. Besides, 
if the oldest son of a king is dead, it is more 
reasonable that the next oldest should succeed 
him, rather than that the crown should go down 
to the children of the one who has died." 

The laws of succession were not absolutely 
settled in those days, so that, in doubtful cases, 
it was not uncommon for the king himself, or 
the Parliament, or the king and Parliament to- 
gether, to select from among different claim- 
ants, during the life-time of the king, the one 
whom they wished to succeed to the crown. 

All were agreed, however, in this case — the 
king, the Parliament, and the people of the 
country — that if Edward should survive his fa- 
ther, he was the rightful heir. He was a uni- 
versal favorite, and people had been long antic- 
ipating a period of great prosperity and glory 
for the kingdom of England when he should be 
king. 

In the mean time, however, his health grew 
worse and worse, and at length, in 1376, he died. 
His death produced a great sensation. Provis- 
ion was made for a very magnificent funeral. 
The prince died at Westminster, which was then 
a mile or two west from London, though now 
London has become so extended that Westmin- 



168 King Kichard II. 



Grand burial of the prince, at Canterbury. 



ster forms the west end of the town. It was 
determined to bury the prince in the Cathedral 
at Canterbury. Canterbury is in the south- 
eastern part of England, and was then, as now, 
the residence of the archbishop, and the relig- 
ious metropolis, so to speak, of the kingdom. 
When the day of the funeral arrived, an im- 
mense cavalcade and procession was formed 
at Westminster. All the nobles of the court 
and the members of Parliament joined in the 
train as mourners, and followed the body 
through the city. The body was placed on a 
magnificent hearse, which was drawn by twelve 
horses. Immense throngs of people crowded 
the streets and the windows to see the proces- 
sion go by. After passing through the city, 
the hearse, attended by the proper escort, took 
the road to Canterbury, and there the body of 
the prince was interred. A monument was 
erected over the tomb, upon which was placed 
an effigy of the prince, dressed in the armor in 
which the illustrious wearer had gained so many 
victories and acquired such lasting renown. 

The King of France, although the prince had 
been one of his most implacable enemies all his 
life, and had been engaged in incessant wars 
against him, caused funeral solemnities to be 
celebrated in Paris on the occasion of his death. 



Accession to the Throne. 169 



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170 Kin<2 Eichard II. [A.D.1376. 

Richard is declared heir to the crown. 

The ceremonies were performed with great 
magnificence in the chapel of the royal palace, 
and all the barons, knights, and nobles of the 
court attended in grand costume, and joined in 
rendering honor to the memory of their depart- 
ed foe. 

It was about midsummer when Eichard's fa- 
ther died. Eichard's uncle, John of Gaunt, 
Duke of Lancaster, was in London, and he had 
a large party in his favor, though generally he 
was very unpopular in England. He had not 
yet openly claimed the right to inherit the 
crown, nor did any one know positively that he 
intended to do so. In order to prevent, if pos- 
sible, any dispute on this question, and to an- 
ticipate any movements which John might oth- 
erwise make to secure the crown to himself, the 
Parliament petitioned the king to bring the 
young Prince Eichard before them, that they 
might publicly receive him, and recognize him 
formally as heir to the crown. This the king 
did. Eichard was dressed in royal robes, and 
conveyed in great state to the hall where Par- 
liament was convened. Of course, the spectacle 
of a boy of ten years old brought in this man- 
ner before so august an assembly excited uni- 
versal attention. The young prince was re- 
ceived with great honor. A solemn oath of 



1376.] Accession to the Throne. 171 



Grand entertainment at Christmas. 



allegiance was taken by all present, including 
the members of the Parliament, the great of- 
ficers of state, and a number of nobles of high 
rank, including the Duke of Lancaster himself. 
In this oath, the claims of Eichard to succeed 
his grandfather as King of England were rec- 
ognized, and those taking the oath bound them- 
selves forever to maintain his rights against all 
who should ever call them in question. 

At Christmas of that year the king gave a 
great entertainment to all the lords and nobles 
of his court. At this entertainment he gave 
Prince Richard the highest place, next to him- 
self, putting his uncle John, and all his other 
uncles, below him. This was to signify that he 
was now the second person in the kingdom, and 
that his uncles must always henceforth yield 
precedence to him. 

The king was now sixty-five years of age. 
His health was very infirm. It was made so, in 
great measure, by his mode of life, which was 
scandalous. He associated with corrupt men 
and women, who led him into great excesses. 
As the spring of the year came on he grew 
worse, but he would not abandon his evil hab- 
its. He lived at one of his palaces on the 
Thames, a short distance above London, near 
Richmond. His government fell into great dis- 



172 King Eichaed II. 

Bad character of the king. Alice Perrers. 

order, but lie did nothing to restrain or correct 
the evils that occurred. In a word, he was fast 
relapsing into utter imbecility. 

There was a young woman, named Alice Per- 
rers, who had for some time been the favorite 
of the king, and had openly lived with him, 
greatly to the displeasure of many of his peo- 
ple. She was now with him at his palace. The 
nobles and courtiers who had been in attend- 
ance upon the king, seeing that he was soon to 
die, began to withdraw from him, and leave 
him to his fate. They saw that there was noth- 
ing more to be obtained from him, and that, for 
their future prospects, they must depend on the 
favor of Prince Richard or of his uncle John. 
It is true that Richard's right to the succession 
had been acknowledged, but then he was yet a 
child, and it was supposed that his uncle John, 
being the next oldest son of the king, would 
probably be appointed regent until he should 
come of age. So the courtiers left the dying 
monarch to his fate, and went to court the favor 
of those who were soon to succeed to his power. 
Some went to the palace of the Duke of Lan- 
caster ; others proceeded to Kennington, where 
the prince and his mother were residing. The 
poor king found himself forsaken of all the 
world, and left to die neglected and alone. It 



1376.] Accession to the Throne. 173 

Death of the king. A council of government appointed. 

is said that Alice Perrers was the last to leave 
him, and that she only remained after the rest 
for the sake of a valuable ring which he wore 
upon his finger, and which she wished to get 
away from him as soon as the dying monarch 
was too far gone to be conscious of the robbery. 

The counselors and nobles, though they thus 
forsook the king, were not wholly unmindful 
of the interests of the kingdom. They assem- 
bled immediately after his death, and determ- 
ined that during Eichard's minority the govern- 
ment Should be administered by a council, and 
they selected for this council twelve men from 
among the highest nobles of the land. They 
determined upon this plan rather than upon a 
regency because they knew that if a regent 
were appointed it would be necessary that the 
Duke of Lancaster should be the man, and they 
were unwilling to put the power into his hands, 
for fear that he would not surrender it when 
Eichard should come of age. 

Besides, it would be in his power, in case he 
had been appointed regent, to have caused Eich- 
ard to be put to death in some secret way, if he 
chose to do so, and then, of course, the crown 
would, without dispute, pass next to him. It 
was not wholly unreasonable to fear this, for 
such crimes had often been committed by ri val 



174 King Kichaed XL 

Chivalry. Fear of the French. Embargo. 

against rival in the English royal line. A man 
might be in those days a very brave and gal- 
lant knight, a model in the eyes of all for the 
unsullied purity of his chivalric honor, and yet 
be ready to poison or starve an uncle, or a broth- 
er, or a nephew, without compunction or re- 
morse, if their rights or interests conflicted with 
his own. The honor of chivalry was not moral 
principle or love of justice and right; it was 
mere punctiliousness in respect to certain con- 
ventional forms. 

Immediately on the death of the king, orders 
were sent to all the ports in the southern part 
of England forbidding any ship or boat of any 
kind from going to sea. The object of this was 
to keep the death of the king a secret from the 
King of France, for fear that he might seize the 
opportunity for an invasion of England. In- 
deed, it was known that he was preparing an 
expedition for this purpose before the king died, 
and it was considered very important that he 
should not hear of the event until the govern- 
ment should be settled, lest he should take ad- 
vantage of it to hasten his invasion. 

The making of these arrangements, and the 
funeral ceremonies connected with the inter- 
ment of the king, occupied some days. There 
was also a difficulty between the Duke of Lan- 



Accession to the Tbroke. 175 



Some account of Wickliffe the reformer. 



caster and the citizens of London to ha settled, 
which for a time threatened to be quite embar 
rassing. The case was this. 

In all accounts of the Reformation in England, 
among the earliest of those who first called in 
question the supremacy of the Pope, the name 
of Wickliffe is always mentioned. Indeed, he 
has been called the morning star of the English 
Reformation, as he appeared before it, and, by 
the light which beamed from his writings and 
his deeds, announced and ushered its approach. 
He was a collegian of the great University of 
Oxford, a very learned man, and a great stu- 
dent of ecclesiastical and civil law. During the 
reign of Edward, Richard's grandfather, who had 
now just died, there had been some disputes be- 
tween him and the Pope in relation to their re- 
spective rights and powers within the realm of 
England. This is not the place to explain the 
particulars of the dispute. It is enough here to 
say that there were two parties formed in En- 
gland, some taking sides with the Church, and 
others with the king. The bishops and clergy, 
of course, belonged to the former class, and 
many of the high nobility to the latter. At 
length, after various angry discussions, the Pope 
issued a bull, addressed to the Archbishop of 
Canterbury and to the Bishop of London, two 



176 King Richard II. 

The Pope's bulls. Meaning of the term. The golden bull. 

of the highest ecclesiastical dignitaries of the 
realm, commanding them to cause Wickliffe to 
be apprehended and brought before them for 
trial on the charge of heresy. 

The decrees of popes were in those days, as 
now, generally called bulls. The reason why 
they were called by this name was on account 
of their being authenticated by the Pope's seal, 
which was impressed upon a sort of button or 
boss of metal attached to the parchment by a 
cord or ribbon. The Latin name for this boss 
was bulla. Such bosses were sometimes made 
of lead, so as to be easily stamped by the seal. 
Sometimes they were made of other metals. 
There was one famous decree of the Pope in 
which the boss was of gold. This was called 
the golden bull. 

On the adjoining page we have an engraving, 
copied from a very ancient book, representing 
an archbishop reading a bull to the people in a 
church. You can see the boss of metal, with 
the seal stamped upon it, hanging down from 
the parchment. 

As soon as the Archbishop of Canterbury 
and the Bishop of London received the bull 
commanding them to bring Wickliffe to trial, 
they caused him to be seized and brought to 



Accession to the Throne. 179 



Trial of Wickliffe in London. The assembly. Violent disputes. 

London. On hearing of his arrest, a number 
of his friends among the nobles came at once 
to London too, in order that they might sup- 
port him by their countenance and encourage- 
ment, and restrain the prelates from carrying 
their hostility against him too far. Among 
these were the Duke of Lancaster and a certain 
Lord Percy, a nobleman of very high rank and 
station. The trial took place in the Church of 
St. Paul's. Wickliffe was called upon to answer 
to the charges made against him before a very 
imposing court of ecclesiastics, all dressed mag- 
nificently in their sacerdotal robes. The knights 
and barons who took Wickliffe's side were pres- 
ent too in their military costume, and a great 
assembly besides, consisting chiefly of the citi- 
zens of London. 

The common people of London, being great- 
ly under the influence of the priests, were, of 
course, against Wickliffe, and they looked with 
evil eyes upon the Duke of Lancaster and the 
other nobles who had come there to befriend 
him. In the course of the trial, which it seems 
was not conducted in a very regular manner, 
the prelates and the nobles got into a dispute. 
The dispute at last became so violent that the 
Duke of Lancaster had the rudeness to threaten 
the Bishop of London that if he did not behave 



180 King Eichard II. 

Rudeness of the Duke of Lancaster. Indignation of the people. 

better he would drag him out of the church by 
the hair of his head. This was certainly very 
rough language to address to a bishop, especial- 
ly at a time when he was sitting, under author- 
ity from the Pope, as a judge in a high spiritual 
court, and clothed in all the paraphernalia of 
his sacred office. The Londoners were excess- 
ively angry. They went out and called their 
fellow-citizens to arms. The excitement spread 
and increased during the night, and the next 
morning a mob collected in the streets, threat- 
ening vengeance against the duke and Lord 
Percy, and declaring that they would kill them. 
The duke's arms, which were displayed in a 
public place in the city, they reversed, as was 
customary in the case of traitors, and then grow- 
ing more and more excited as they went on, 
they directed their steps toward the palace of 
the Savoy, where they expected to find the duke 
himself. The duke was not there, but the men 
would have set fire to the palace had it not been 
for the interposition of the Bishop of London. 
He, hearing what was going on, repaired to the 
spot, and with great difficulty succeeded in re- 
straining the mob and saving the palace. They, 
however, proceeded forthwith to the house of 
Lord Percy, where they burst through the doors, 
and, ransacking all the rooms, tore and broke 



Accession to the Throne. 181 

Prieat murdered. Alarm of the mayor and aldermen. 

every thing to pieces, and threw the fragments 
out at the windows. They found a man dress- 
ed as a priest, whom they took to be Lord Per- 
cy in disguise, and they killed him on the spot. 

The murdered man was not Lord Percy, how- 
ever, but a priest in his own proper dress. Lord 
Percy and the duke were just preparing to sit 
down to dinner quietly together in another 
place, when a messenger came breathless and 
informed them what was going on. They im- 
mediately fled. They ran to the water-side, got 
into a boat, and rowed themselves over to Ken- 
sington, a place on the southern side of the riv- 
er, nearly opposite to Westminster, where the 
young Prince Richard and his mother were 
then residing ; for all this took place just before 
King Richard's grandfather died. 

The lord-mayor and aldermen of London 
were greatly alarmed when they heard of this 
riot, and of the excesses which the citizens of 
London had committed. They were afraid that 
the Duke of Lancaster, whose influence and 
power they knew was already very great, and 
which would probably become vastly greater 
on the death of the king, would hold them re- 
sponsible for it. So they went in a body to 
Richmond, where the king was lying sick, and 
made very humble apologies for the indignities 



182 King Richard II. 

Deputation sent to the young king. 

which, had been offered to the duke, and they 
promised to do all in their power to punish the 
transgiessors. The king was, however, too far 
gone to pay much attention to this embassy. 
The mayor and aldermen then sent a deputa- 
tion to Prince Eichard at Kennington, to de- 
clare their good- will to him, and their readiness 
to accept him as their sovereign upon the death 
of his father, and to promise faithful allegiance 
to him on their own part individually, and on 
the part of the city of London. They hoped 
by this means to conciliate the good opinion of 
Eichard and of his mother, as well as of the 
other friends around him, and prepare them to 
judge leniently of their case when it should 
come before them. 

All this, as has already been remarked, took 
place just before King Edward's death. Im- 
mediately after his death Eichard and his moth- 
er went to Eichmond, and took up their resi- 
dence in the palace where Edward died. On 
the next day a deputation was sent to the may- 
or and aldermen of London in Eichard's name, 
calling upon them to appear at Eichmond be- 
fore the king, together with the Duke of Lan- 
caster and his friends, in order that both sides 
might be heard in respect to the subject-matter 
of the dispute, and that the question might be 



1376.] Accession to the Throne. 183 

The Londoners summoned. Richard holds a court. 



properly decided. The Duke of Lancaster, they 
were informed, had agreed to this course, and 
was ready to appear. They were accordingly 
summoned to appear also. 

The Londoners were at first rather afraid to 
obey this injunction. They did not think that 
a boy of eleven years of age was really compe- 
tent to hear and decide such a case. Then they 
were afraid, too, that the Duke of Lancaster, 
being his uncle, would have such an influence 
over him as to lead him to decide just as he, 
the duke, should desire, and that thus, if they 
submitted to such a hearing of the case, they 
would place themselves wholly in the duke's 
power. After some hesitation, however, they 
finally concluded to go, stipulating only that, 
whatever disposal might be made of the case, 
there should, in no event, any personal harm 
befall the mayor or the aldermen. 

This condition was agreed to, and the parties 
appeared on the appointed day before the little 
king to have the case tried. Richard was, of 
course, surrounded by his officers and counsel- 
ors, and the business was really transacted by 
them, though it was done in the young king's 
name. There was no difficulty in settling the 
dispute amicably, for all parties were disposed 
to have it settled, and in such cases it is always 



184 King Kichabd II. [A.D.1376. 

The whole difficulty amicably settled. 

easy to find a way. In this instance, the ad- 
visers of Richard managed so well that the duke 
and his friends were quite reconciled to the 
Londoners, and they all went out from the pres- 
ence of the king at last, when the case was con- 
cluded, as good friends apparently as they had 
ever been. 

The settling of this dispute was the first act 
of King Richard's' reign. Considering how vio- 
lent the dispute had been, and how powerful 
the parties to it were, and also considering that 
Richard was yet nothing but a small though 
very pretty boy, we must admit that it was a 
very good beginning. 



A.D. 1377.] The Coronation. 185 

Nature and design of a coronation. 



Chapter VII. 
The Coronation. 

THE coronation of a monarch is often post- 
poned for a considerable time after his ac- 
cession to the throne. There is no practical 
inconvenience in such a postponement, for the 
crowning, though usually a very august and 
imposing ceremony, is of no particular force or 
effect in respect to the powers or prerogatives 
of the king. He enters upon the full enjoy- 
ment of all these prerogatives and powers at 
once on the death of Lis predecessor, and can 
exercise them all without restraint, as the pub- 
lic good may requiro. The coronation is mere- 
ly a pageant, which, as such, may be postponed 
for a longer or shorter period, as occasion may 
require. 

Eichard was crowned, however, a very short 
time after his father's death. It was thought 
best, undoubtedly, to take prompt measures for 
sealing and securing his right to the succession, 
lest the Duke of Lancaster or some other per- 
son might be secretly forming plans to supplant 
him. King Edward, Richards grandfather, died 



186 King Eichard II. [A.D.1377. 

Arrangements made for Eichard 1 s coronation. 

on the 22d of June. The funeral occupied sev- 
eral days, and immediately afterward arrange- 
ments began to be made for the coronation. 
The day was appointed for the 16th of July. 
On the 15th the king was to proceed in state 
from the palace in the environs of London 
where he had been residing, through the city 
of London, to Westminster, where the corona- 
tion was to take place ; and as the people of 
London desired to make a grand parade in hon- 
or of the passage of the king through the city, 
the arrangements of the occasion comprised two 
celebrations on two successive days — the pro- 
cession through London on the 15th, and the 
coronation at Westminster on the 16th. 

On the morning of the 15th, an imposing 
train of the nobility, led by all the great officers 
of state, assembled at the residence of the king 
to receive him and to escort him through the 
city. Richard was dressed in magnificent robes, 
and mounted upon a handsome charger. A no- 
bleman led his horse by the bridle. Another 
nobleman of high rank went before him, bear- 
ing the sword of state, the emblem of the regal 
power. Other nobles and prelates in great num- 
bers, mounted many of them on splendidly-ca- 
parisoned horses, and in full armor, joined in 
the train. Bands of musicians, with trumpets 



A.D.1377.] The Coronation 187 

Conduits of wine. Golden snow. The young girls. 

and other martial instruments in great numbers, 
filled the air with joyful sounds, and in this 
manner the procession commenced its march. 

In the mean time, the Londoners had made 
great preparations for the reception of the cor- 
tege. Conduits were opened in various parts 
of the city, to run with wine instead of water, 
in token of the general joy. In the heart of 
the city an edifice in the form of a castle was 
erected in honor of the occasion. This castle 
had four towers. In each of the towers were 
four beautiful young girls, all about Richard's 
age. They were dressed in white, and their 
duty was, as the king went by, to throw out a 
quantity of little leaves of gold, which, falling 
upon and all around the king, produced the ef- 
fect of a shower of golden flakes of snow. 

The procession stopped before the castle. 
There were conduits flowing with wine upon 
two sides of it. The young girls descended 
from the towers, bringing golden cups in their 
hands. These cups they filled with wine at the 
fountains, and offered them to the king and to 
the nobles who accompanied him. On the top 
of the castle, between the four towers, there 
stood a golden angel with a crown in his hand. 
By some ingenious mechanism, this angel was 
made to extend his arm to the king, as if in the 



188 King Richard II. 

Procession. Crowds of people in the streets. 

act of offering him the crown. This was a sym- 
bol representing the idea often inculcated in 
those days, that the right of the king to reign 
was a divine right, as if the crown were placed 
upon his head by an angel from heaven. 

After pausing thus a short time at the castle, 
the procession moved on. The streets were fill- 
ed with vast crowds of people, who drowned 
the music of the trumpets and drums by their 
continual acclamations. 

In this way the royal procession passed on 
through London, and at length arrived at the 
gate of the palace in Westminster. Here Eich- 
ard was assisted to dismount from his horse, 
and was conducted into the palace between two 
long lines of knights and soldiers that were sta- 
tioned at the entrance and upon the staircase 
to honor his arrival. He was glad that the 
ceremony was over, for he was beginning to be 
very tired of riding on horseback so many 
hoars, and of being so long in the midst of 
scenes of so much noise, excitement, and con- 
fusion. 

The next day was the day appointed for the 
coronation itself. Eichard was dressed in his 
royal robes, and shortly before noon he was 
conducted in great state from the palace to the 
church. He was received by a procession of 



The Coronation. 189 

< 'eremonies of the coronation. Bewildering scene. 

bishops and monks, and conducted by them to 
the grand altar. The pavement before the al- 
tar was covered with rich tapestry. Here Rich- 
ard kneeled while prayers were said and the 
Litany was sung by the priests. His barons and 
nobles, and the great officers of state, kneeled 
around him. After the prayers were over, he 
was conducted to an elevated seat, which was 
richly decorated with carvings and gold. 

A bishop then ascended to a pulpit built 
against one of the vast Gothic columns of the 
church, and preached a sermon. The sermon 
was on the subject of the duty of a king; ex- 
plaining how a king ought to conduct himself 
in the government of his people, and enjoining 
upon the people, too, the duty of being faithful 
and obedient to their king. 

Richard paid little attention to this sermon, 
being already tired of the scene. He was, more- 
over, bewildered by the multitude of people 
crowded into the church, and all gazing intent- 
ly and continually upon him. There were bish- 
ops and priests in their sacerdotal robes of crim- 
son and gold, and knights and nobles brilliant 
with nodding plumes and glittering armor of 
steel. When the sermon was finished, the oath 
was administered to Richard. It was read by 
the archbishop, Richard assenting to it when it 



190 King Richard II. 

Oath administered to the people. Ceremony of anointing. 

was read. As soon as the oath had thus been 
administered, the archbishop, turning in succes- 
sion to each quarter of the church, repeated the 
oath in a loud voice to the people, four times in 
all, and called upon those whom he successive- 
ly addressed to ask whether they would sub- 
mit to Richard as their king. The people on 
each side, as he thus addressed them in turn, 
answered, with a loud voice, that they would 
obey him. This ceremony being ended, the 
archbishop turned again toward Richard, pro- 
nounced certain additional prayers, and then 
gave him his benediction. 

The ceremony of anointing came next. The 
archbishop advanced to Richard and began to 
take off the robes in which he was attired. At 
the same time, four earls held over and around 
him, as a sort of screen, a coverture, as it was 
called, of cloth of gold. Richard remained un- 
der this coverture while he was anointed. The 
archbishop took off nearly all his clothes, and 
then anointed him with the holy oil. He ap- 
plied the oil to his head, his breast, his shoul- 
ders, and the joints of his arms, repeating, as he 
did so, certain prayers. The choir, in the mean 
time, chanted a portion of the Scriptures rela- 
ting to the anointing of King Solomon. When 
the oil had been applied, the archbishop put 



The Coronation. 191 

Richard clothed in his royal robes. 

upon the king a long robe, and directed him to 
kneel. Kichard accordingly kneeled again upon 
the tapestry which covered the floor, the arch- 
bishop and the bishops kneeling around him. 
While in this position the archbishop offered 
more prayers, and more hymns were sung, and 
then he assisted Eichard to rise from his kneel- 
ing posture, and proceeded to dress and equip 
him with the various garments, and arms, and 
emblems appropriate to the kingly power. In 
putting on each separate article the archbishop 
made a speech in Latin, according to a form 
provided for such occasions, beginning with, 
Keceive this cloak, receive this stole, receive 
this sword, and the like.* 

In this manner and with these ceremonies 
Richard was invested with a splendidly-em- 
broidered coat and cloak, a stole, a sword, a pair 
of spurs, a pair of bracelets, and, finally, with a 
garment over all called the pallium. All these 
things, of course, had been made expressly for 
the occasion, and were adapted to the size and 
shape of a boy like Richard. The archbishop 
was assisted in putting these things on by cer- 
tain nobles of the court, who had been desig- 

* The stole was a long narrow scarf, fringed at the ends. 
It was wound about the neck and crossed over the breast, 
and was worn as a badge. 



192 King Richard II. 

The crown. The globe. The sceptre. 

nated for this purpose, and who considered 
themselves highly honored by the part that 
was assigned them in the ceremony. 

When the dressing had been completed, the 
archbishop took the crown, and after having in- 
voked a blessing upon it by his prayers and 
benedictions, all in the Latin tongue, he placed 
it upon Richard's head, repeating, at the same 
time, a Latin form, the meaning of which was 
that he received the crown from God Almighty, 
and that to God alone he was responsible for 
the exercise of his royal power. 

Then came a certain grand officer of the court 
with a red globe, an emblem of royalty which 
has long been used in England. This globe 
the archbishop blessed, and then the officer put 
it into Richard's hands. In the same manner 
the sceptre was brought, and, after being blessed 
by means of the same ceremonies and prayers, 
was also put into Richard's hands. 

Richard was now completely invested with 
the badges and insignia of his office. The arch- 
bishop then, raising his hands, pronounced upon 
him his apostolic benediction, and the ceremony, 
so far, was ended. The bishops and nobles then 
came up to congratulate and salute Richard on 
having thus received his crown, after which they 
conducted him to his seat again. 



The Coronation. 193 



Richard makes his offerings at the altar. 



Richard now began to be very tired and to 
wish to go home, but there was a great deal 
more yet to come before he could be set at lib- 
erty. There was an anthem to be sung by the 
choir, and more prayers to be said, after which 
there came what was called the offertory. This 
was a ceremony in which a person was led to 
the altar, to lay down upon it whatever offering 
he chose to make for the service of the Church. 
The king rose from his seat and was led for- 
ward to the altar, having, of course, been pre- 
viously told what he was to do. He had in his 
hand a sum of money which had been provided 
for the occasion. He laid down this money 
first upon the altar, and then his sword. It 
was the custom in these coronations for the 
king thus to offer his sword, in token of the 
subordination of his royal power to the law and 
will of God, and then the sword was afterward 
to be redeemed with money by the sword-bear- 
er, the officer whose duty it was, on leaving the 
church, to bear the sword in procession before 
the king. 

Accordingly, after Richard had returned from 
the altar, the earl whose office it was to bear the 
sword went to the altar and redeemed it with a 
sum of money, and carried it back to the place 
where Richard was sitting. 



194 KiffG Richard II. [A.D.1377. 

Richard is entirely exhausted with fatigue. 

Then came the service of the mass, which 
occupied a long time, so that Kichard became 
very tired indeed before it was ended. After 
the mass came the communion, which it was 
necessary for Richard to partake. The com- 
munion was, of course, accompanied with more 
prayers and more chantings, until the poor boy 
thought that the ceremonies would never be 
ended. "When at last, however, all was over, 
and the procession was ready to form again to 
leave the church, Richard was so worn out and 
exhausted with the fatigue that he had endured 
that he could not ride home ; so they brought 
a sort of litter and placed him upon it, and four 
of the knights bore him home on their shoul- 
ders. His uncle the Duke of Lancaster and 
the Earl Percy went before him, and a long 
train of bishops, nobles, and grand officers of 
state followed behind. In this way he was 
brought back to the palace. As soon as the 
party reached the palace, they carried Richard 
directly up to a chamber, took off all his grand 
paraphernalia, and put him to bed. 

He rested a little while, and then they brought 
him something to eat. His troubles were, how- 
ever, not yet over, for there was to be a great 
banquet that afternoon and evening in the hall 
of the palace, and it was necessary that he should 



A.D.1377.] The Coronation. 195 

Creation of earls. Rude amusements. Wine. 

be there. Accordingly, after a short time, lie 
was arrayed again in his royal robes and insig- 
nia, and conducted down to the hall. Here 
he had a ceremony to perform of creating cer- 
tain persons earls. Of course it was his coun- 
selors that decided who the persons were that 
were to be thus raised to the peerage, and they 
told him also exactly what he was to do and 
say in the programme of the ceremony. He 
sat upon his throne, surrounded by his nobles 
and officers of state, and did what they told him 
to do. When this ceremony had been perform- 
ed, the whole company sat down to the tables 
which had been prepared for a banquet. 

They continued their feasting and carousing 
to a late hour, and then amused themselves 
with various boisterous games common in those 
days. In the court-yard of the palace a pillar 
was set up, with pipes at the sides of it, from 
which there were flowing continually streams 
of wine of different kinds, and every body who 
pleased was permitted to come and drink. A 
part of the amusement consisted in the push- 
ings and strugglings of the people to get to the 
faucets, and the spilling of the wine all over 
their faces and clothes. The top of the pillar 
was adorned with a large gilt image of an eagle. 

The next day there were more processions 



196 King Richard II. 

French invasions. Kichard's uncles. His bright prospects. 



and more celebrations, but Richard himself was, 
fortunately for him, excused from taking any 
part in them. In the mean time, the people who 
managed the government in Richard's name 
heard the news that the French had learned, in 
some way, the tidings of King Edward's death, 
and had landed in the southern part of England, 
and were burning and destroying all before 
them. So they made all haste to raise an army 
to go and repel the invaders. 

It was finally concluded, also, to appoint Rich- 
ard's two uncles, namely, John, Duke of Lan- 
caster, and Edmund, Earl of Cambridge, as his 
guardians until he should become of age. Some 
persons thought it was not safe to trust Richard 
to the Duke of Lancaster at all, but others 
thought it would be better to conciliate him by 
treating him with respect, than to make him an 
open enemy by passing over him entirely. 

Richard was considered, at this time, a very 
amiable and good boy, and it was generally be- 
lieved by the people of England that, with a 
right and proper training, he would grow up to 
be a virtuous and honest man, and they antici- 
pated for him a long and happy reign. And 
yet, in a little more than ten years after he be- 
came of age, he was disgraced and dethroned 
on account of his vices and crimes. 



Chivalry. 197 

Edmund, Earl of Cambridge. Thomas of Woodstock. 



Chapter YIIL 
Chivalry. 

BESIDES his uncle John, Duke of Lancas- 
ter, Eichard had two other uncles, who 
each acted an important part in public affairs 
at the commencement of his reign. They 
were, 

1. His uncle Edmund, who was the Earl of 
Cambridge, and afterward Duke of York. Of 
course he is sometimes called, in the histories 
of those times, by one of these names, and some- 
times by the other. 

2. His uncle Thomas. Thomas was born in 
the palace of Woodstock, and so was often call- 
ed Thomas of Woodstock. He was the Earl 
of Buckingham, and afterward the Duke of 
Gloucester. 

Besides these uncles, Richard had a cousin 
just about his own age, who afterward, as we 
shall see, played a very important j)art indeed 
in Richard's history. This cousin was named 
Henry Bolingbroke. He was the son of Rich- 
ard's uncle John, the Duke of Lancaster. He 
and Richard were now both about eleven years 



198 King Bichard II. 

Richard's young cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke. 

of age ; or rather, Kichard was eleven, and his 
cousin Henry was about ten. 

Of course, Eichard was altogether too young 
to exercise any real control in respect to the 
government of the country. Every thing was, 
consequently, left to the Parliament and the 
nobles. His uncles endeavored to assume the 
general direction of affairs, but there was never- 
theless a strong party against them. There 
were no means of deciding these disputes ex- 
cept by the votes in Parliament, and these votes 
went one way and the other, as one party or 
the other, for the time being, gained the ascend- 
ency. Every one watched very closely the 
conduct of Kichard's uncle John. He was the 
next oldest son of Edward the Third, after Ed- 
ward, the Prince of Wales, Eichard's father. Of 
course, if Eichard were to die, he would become 
king ; and if he himself were to die before 
Eichard did, and then Eichard were to die be- 
fore he grew up and had children of his own, 
then his son, Eichard's cousin, Henry Boling- 
broke, would be entitled to claim the kingdom. 
Thus, while Eichard remained unmarried and 
without heirs, this Henry Bolingbroke was in 
the direct line of succession, and, of course, next 
to Eichard himself, he was, perhaps, the most 
important personage in the kingdom. There 



Chivalry. 199 

A boy king in France. Richard and Henry Folingbroke. 

was, it is true, another child, the grandchild of 
an older uncle of Kichard's, named Lionel ; but 
he was very young at this time, and he died not 
long afterward, leaving Henry Bolingbroke the 
only heir. 

It is curious enough that, a year or two after 
this, the French king died, and was succeeded 
by his son, a boy of about twelve years of age. 
This boy was Charles the Sixth. He was 
crowned in France with ceremonies still more 
splendid and imposing in some respects than 
those which had been observed in London on 
the occasion of Richard's coronation. Thus 
the hopes and fears of all the millions of people 
inhabiting France and England respectively, in 
regard to the succession of the crown and the 
government of the country, were concentrated 
in three boys not yet in their teens. 

Of course, Richard and his cousin Henry 
Bolingbroke were rivals from the beginning. 
Richard and his friends were jealous and sus- 
picious of Henry and of his father, and were al- 
ways imagining that they were wishing that 
Richard might die, in order that they might 
come into his place. Thus there was no cor- 
dial friendship in the family, nor could there be 
any. Of the other nobles and barons, some 
took sides in one way and some in the other, 



200 King Kichakd II. 

French incursions into the Isle of Wight. 

The boys themselves, both. Kichard and Henr}^ 
were too young to know much, about these 
things; but the leading barons and courtiers 
formed themselves into parties, ranging them- 
selves some on one side and some on the other, 
so as to keep up a continual feeling of jealousy 
and ill-will. 

In the mean time, the French began to re- 
taliate for the invasions t of their country which 
the English had made, by planning invasions 
of England in return. One expedition landed 
on the Isle of Wight, and after burning and de- 
stroying the villages and small towns, they laid 
some of the large towns under a heavy contri- 
bution; that is, they made them pay a large 
sum of money under a threat that, if the money 
was not paid, they would burn down their town 
too. So the citizens collected the money and 
paid it, and the French expedition set sail and 
went away before the government had time to 
send troops from London to intercept them. 

The French, too, besides invading England 
themselves on the south, incited the Scotch to 
make incursions into the northern provinces, 
for Scotland was then entirely independent of 
England. A curious story is related illustrat- 
ing the religious ignorance which prevailed 
among the common people of Scotland in those 



A.D.1379.] Chivalky. 201 



Curious story of the Scotch borderers. 



days. It seems that some remarkable epidemic 
prevailed in 1379 in the northern part of En- 
gland, which was extremely fatal. Great num- 
bers of people died. The Scotch sent messen- 
gers across the border to ascertain what the 
cause of the sickness was. The English people 
told them that they did not know what the 
cause was. It was a judgment from God, the 
nature and operation of which was hidden from 
them. They added, however, this pious senti- 
ment, that they submitted themselves patiently 
to the dispensation, for they knew "that every 
calamity that could befall men in this world 
came from the grace of God, to the end that, 
being punished for their sins, they might be led 
to repent and reform their wicked lives." 

The messengers went home, and reported to 
the Scottish borderers that the English people 
said that the plague came from the grace of 
God, not being able, it would seem, to remem- 
ber the rest of the message. So the priests ar- 
ranged a form of prayer, addressed to certain 
saints, which was to be said by the people ev- 
ery morning. This prayer implored the saints 
to deliver the people from the grace of God, and 
the dreadful plagues which were sent by it upon 
men. The form was this :* 

* The form was in Latin, We give here the English of it, 



202 King Kichard II. [A.D.1379. 

Their strange ideas of the grace of God. 

The head of the family would first say, 
"Blessed be," and the others would respond, 
" The Lord." 
Then the head of the family would say, 
" God and Saint Mango, 
" Saint Eomane and Saint Andro, 
" Shield us this day from God's grace, and 
the foul death that Englishmen die of." 
And all the others would say " Amen." 
Thus they considered the grace of God as an 
evil which they were to pray to be delivered 
from. 

Indeed, the common people at this time, not 
only in Scotland, but throughout England, were 
in a state of great ignorance and degradation 
The barons, and knights, and soldiers general- 
ly looked down with great contempt upon all 
who were engaged in any industrial pursuits. 
In the country, the great mass of those who 
were employed in tilling the ground were serfs 
or slaves, bought and sold with the land, and 
at the disposal, in almost all respects, of their 
haughty masters. The inhabitants of the towns, 
who lived by the manufacturing arts or by 
commerce, were more independent, but the no- 
bles, and knights, and all who considered them- 
selves gentlemen looked down with something 
like contempt upon these too, as ? in fact, their 



A.D.1379.] Chivalry. 203 

Nature of the royal government The House of Commons. 

successors, the present aristocracy of England, 
do at the present day, regarding them as per- 
sons in a very mean condition, and engaged in 
low and ignoble pursuits. Still, the industrial 
classes had increased greatly in wealth and num- 
bers, and they began to have and to express 
some opinion in respect to public affairs. They 
had considerable influence in the House of 
Commons ; and the government was, in a great 
measure, dependent upon the House of Com- 
mons, and was becoming more and more so ev- 
ery year. It is true, the king, or rather the 
great lords who managed the government in his 
name, could make war where they pleased, and 
appoint whom they pleased to carry it on. Still, 
they could not assess any tax except by the con- 
sent of the Commons, and thus, in carrying on 
any great operations, they were becoming every 
year more and more dependent on the public 
sentiment of the country. 

The country began to be very much dissatis- 
fied with the management of public affairs with- 
in two or three years after the commencement 
of Eichard's reign. Large sums of money were 
raised, and put into the hands of Eichard's un- 
cles, who spent it in organizing great expedi- 
tions by land and sea to fight the French ; but 
almost all of these expeditions were unsuccess- 



204 King Richard II. 

Luxury and extravagance of the nobility. Wars. 

fill. The people thought that they were mis- 
managed, and that the money was squandered. 
Some of the nobles expended immense sums 
upon themselves. In the case of one expedi- 
tion that put to sea from the southern coast of 
England, the nobleman who commanded it had 
twenty-five vessels loaded with his own per. 
sonal property and baggage, and that of his ser« 
vants and attendants. This man had fifty -two 
new suits of apparel, made of cloth of gold, im- 
mensely expensive. The fleet was wrecked^ 
and all this property was lost in the sea. 

A great many of the expeditions that were 
fitted out in England were for the purpose of 
carrying on wars in Brittany and Aquitaine, in 
France, for the benefit exclusively of the nobles 
and knights who claimed possessions in those 
countries ; the mass of the people of England, 
at whose expense the operations were carried 
on, having no interest whatever in the result. 
The worst of it was, that in these wars no real 
progress was made. Towns were taken and 
castles were stormed, first by one party and then 
by the other. The engraving represents the 
storming of one of these towns, and, being cop- 
ied from an ancient picture, it shows truthfully 
the kind of armor and the mode of fighting 
employed in those days. 



Chivalry. 207 

Modes of warfare. Mining. Besieging engines. 

Almost the only way of forcing a passage 
into a castle or fortified town was by climbing 
over the walls by means of ladders, and over- 
powering the garrison upon the top of them by 
main force, as represented in the engraving. 
Sometimes, it is true, the besiegers of a castle 
undermined the walls, so as to make them fall 
in and thus open a breach. At the present 
day, mines dug in this way are blown up by 
gunpowder. But people were little acquainted 
with the use of gunpowder then, and so they 
were obliged to shore up the walls while they 
were digging them by means of posts and 
beams, and these, after the miners had with- 
drawn, were pulled out by ropes, and thus the 
walls were made to fall down. 

Great engines were sometimes used, too, to 
batter down the walls of castles and towns. 
There was one kind of engine, used by the Duke 
of Lancaster in one of his campaigns in France 
in the early part of Richard's reign, which was 
called a sow . The sow was made in many parts, 
at a distance from the place besieged, wherever 
a suitable supply of beams and timber could be 
obtained, and then was brought on carts to the 
spot. When it was framed together and put 
in operation, it would hurl immense stones, 
which, striking the walls, made breaches in 



208 King Eichard II. 

The Duke of Lancaster's sow. Gunpowder. 

them, or, going over them, came down into the 
interior of the place, crushing through the roofs 
of the houses, and killing sometimes multitudes 
of men. The sow was made, too, so as to afford 
shelter and protection to a great number of per- 
sons, who could ride upon it while it was drawn 
or pushed up near the walls, and thus reach a 
point where they could begin to undermine the 
walls, or plant their ladders for scaling them. 
The Duke of Lancaster caused one sow to be 
made which would carry, m this way, one hund- 
red men. 

Gunpowder, however, began to be used about 
this time, though in a very imperfect and inef- 
ficient manner. At one siege, namely, that of 
St. Malo, a town on the northwestern coast of 
France, it is said that the Duke of Lancaster 
had four hundred cannon. They were all, 
however, of very little avail in taking the town. 

The wars waged between the English and 
the French in these chivalrous times were much 
more personal in their character than wars are 
at the present day. In that period of the world, 
every great duke, or baron, or knight was in 
some sense an independent personage, having 
his own separate interests to look out for, and 
his own individual rights and honor to main- 
tain, to a degree far greater than now. The 



A.D.1378J Chivalry. 209 

Story of the Welsh knight, Evan. Siege of Mortain. 

consequence of this was, that the narratives of 
wars of those times contain accounts of a great 
many personal incidents and adventures which 
make the history of them much more entertain- 
ing than the histories of modern campaigns. I 
will give one or two examples of these personal 
incidents. 

At one time, while the Duke of Lancaster 
was besieging St. Malo with his four hundred 
cannon, there was a famous Welsh knight, 
named Evan, known in history as Evan of 
Wales, who was besieging a castle belonging to 
the English. The name of the castle was Mor- 
tain. It was on the Eiver Garonne, in the coun- 
try of Aquitaine. The castle was so strong that 
Evan had no hope of taking it by force, and so 
he invested it closely on all sides, and sat down 
quietly waiting for the garrison to be starved 
into a surrender. 

The castle was near the river. Evan built 
three block-houses on the three sides of it. One 
of these block-houses was on the edge of a rock 
before the castle, on the river side. The second 
was opposite a postern gate, and was intended 
particularly to watch the gate, in order to pre- 
vent any one from coming out or going in. 
The third block-house was below the castle, be- 
tween the lower part of it and the water. To 

O 



210 King Richard II. [A.D.1378. 

Situation of the castle. Evan's hostility to the English. 

guard the fourth side of the castle, Evan had 
taken possession of a church which stood at some 
little distance from it, and had converted the 
church into a fort. Thus the castle was com- 
pletely invested, being watched and guarded on 
every side. The garrison, however, would not 
surrender, hoping that they might receive suc- 
cor before their provisions were entirely ex- 
hausted. They remained in this condition for 
a year and a half, and were at length reduced 
to great distress and suffering. Still, the gov- 
ernor of the castle would not surrender. 

It may seem strange that Evan, a knight from 
Wales, should be fighting against the English, 
since Wales had some years before been annex- 
ed to the realm of England. The reason was. 
that Evan's family had been driven out of Wales 
by the cruelties and oppressions of the English. 
His father, who had formerly been Prince of 
Wales, had been beheaded, and Evan, in his in- 
fancy, had been saved by his attendants, who 
fled with him to France. There he had been 
received into the family of the French king, 
John, and, after he had grown up, he had fought 
under John many years. The older he grew, 
the more his heart was filled with resentment 
against the English, and now he was engaged, 
heart and hand, in the attempt to drive them 



Chivalry. 211 

Hatred of the English against Evan. John Lamb. 

out of France. Of course, the English consid- 
ered him a traitor, and they hated him much 
more than they did any of the French com- 
manders, of whom nothing else was to be ex- 
pected than that they should be enemies to 
the English, and right them always and every 
where. Evan they considered as in some sense 
one of their own countrymen who had turned 
against them. 

There was another circumstance which in- 
creased the hatred of the English against Evan, 
and that was, that he had taken one of their 
knights prisoner, and then refused to ransom 
him on any terms. The English offered any 
sum of money that Evan would demand, or they 
offered to exchange for him a French knight of 
the same rank ; but Evan was inexorable. He 
would not give up his prisoner on any terms, 
but sent him to Paris, and shut him up in a 
dungeon, where he pined away, and at length 
died of misery and despair. 

In consequence of these things, a plot was 
formed in England for assassinating Evan. A 
Welshman, by the name of John Lamb, wag 
appointed to execute it. 

John Lamb set out from England, and cross- 
ed the Channel to France. He was a well-edu- 
cated man, speaking French fluently, and h< 



212 King Eichard II. 

John Lamb arrives at Mortain. His reception by Eran. 

was well received every where by the French, 
for he told them that he was a countryman of 
Evan's, and that he was going to Mortain to 
join him. The French, accordingly, treated him 
well, and helped him forward on his journey. 

When he reached Mortain, he came into the 
presence of Evan, and, falling on his knees be- 
fore him, he said that he was his countryman, 
and that he had come all the way from Wales 
to enter into his service. Evan did not suspect 
any treachery. He received the man kindly, 
and made many inquiries of him in respect to 
the news which he brought from Wales. 

John gave him very favorable accounts of 
the country, and spoke particularly of the in- 
terest and affection which was every where felt 
for him. 

"The whole country," said he, "are think- 
ing and talking continually about you, and are 
anxiously desiring your return. They wish to 
have you for their lord." 

These and other flatteries quite won the heart 
of Evan, and he took Lamb into his service, and 
appointed him to a confidential post about his 
person. 

For a time after this there were occasional 
skirmishes between the garrison of Mortain and 
the besiegers, but, as the strength of the garri- 



Chivalry. 213 

State of the siege. Curious manners and customs. 

son gradually failed, these contests became less 
and less frequent, until at last they ceased en« 
tirely. The soldiers of Evan then had nothing 
to do but to watch and wait until the progress 
of starvation and misery should compel the gar- 
rison to surrender. There was no longer any 
danger of sorties from the walls, and the be- 
siegers ceased to be at all on their guard, but 
went and came at their ease about the castle, 
just as if there were no enemy near. 

Evan himself used to go out in the morning, 
when the weather was fine, into the fields in 
front of the castle before he was dressed, and 
there have his hair combed and plaited a long 
time ; for, like most of the knights and gentle- 
men soldiers of those days, he was very partic- 
ular about his dress and his personal appear- 
ance. On these occasions he often had nobody 
to attend him but John Lamb. There was a 
place where there was a fallen tree, which form- 
ed a good seat, at a spot which afforded a com- 
manding view of the castle and of the surround- 
ing country. He used often to go and sit upon 
this tree while his hair was combed, amusing 
himself the while in watching to see what was 
going on in the castle, and to observe if there 
were any signs that the garrison were going to 
surrender. 



214 King Eiohard II. 

John Lamb accomplishes his purpose. Death of Evan, 

One morning, after a very warm night, during 
which Evan had not been able to sleep, he went 
out to this place very early. He was not dress- 
ed, but wore only a jacket and shirt, with a cloak 
thrown over his shoulders. The soldiers gen- 
erally were asleep, and there was nobody with 
Evan but John Lamb. Evan sat down upon 
the log, and presently sent John Lamb to the 
block-house for his comb. 

" Go and get my comb," said he, " and comb 
my hair. That will refresh me a little." 

So John went for the comb. As he went, 
however, it seemed to him that the time for the 
execution of his plan had come. So he brought 
with him from the block-house a Spanish dag- 
ger, which he found there in Evan's apartment. 
As soon as he reached Evan, who had thrown 
off his cloak, and was thus almost naked and 
entirely off his guard, he plunged the dagger 
into him up to the hilt at a single blow. Evan 
sank down upon the ground a lifeless corpse. 
Lamb left the dagger in the wound, and walked 
directly to the gate of the castle. 

The guards at the gate hailed him and de- 
manded what he wanted. He said he wished 
to see the governor of the castle. So the guards 
took him in, and conducted him into the pres- 
ence of the governor. 



Chivalry. 215 

Interview between John Lamb and the governor of the castle. 

"My lord," said Lamb, "I have delivered 
you from one of the greatest enemies you ever 
had." 

"From whom?" asked the governor. 

" From Evan of Wales," said Lamb. 

The governor was very much astonished at 
hearing this, and demanded of Lamb by what 
means he had delivered them from Evan. Lamb 
then related to the governor what he had done. 

The first impression produced upon the gov- 
ernor's mind by the statement which Lamb 
made was a feeling of displeasure. He looked 
at the assassin with a scowl of anger upon his 
face, and said sternly, 

" Wretch ! you have murdered your master. 
You deserve to have your head cut off for such 
a deed ; and, were it not that we are in such 
great straits, and that we gain such very great 
advantage by his death, I would have your head 
cut off on the spot. However, what is done 
can not be undone. Let it pass." 

The garrison did not derive any immediate 
advantage, after all, from the death of Evan, for 
the French were so incensed by the deed which 
John Lamb had perpetrated that they sent more 
troops to the spot, and pressed the siege more 
closely than ever. The garrison was, however, 
not long afterward relieved by an English fleet, 



216 King Richakd II. [A.D. 1378. 

The knights loved fighting for its own sake. 

which came up the river and drove the French 
away. 

The knights and barons of those days were 
not accustomed to consider it any hardship to go 
to war against each other, but rather a pleasure. 
They enjoyed righting each other just as men 
at the present day enjoy hunting wild beasts in 
the forest; and that chieftain was regarded as 
the greatest and most glorious who could pro- 
cure for his retainers the greatest amount of this 
sort of pleasure, provided always that his abili- 
ties as a leader were such that they could have 
their full share of victory in the contests that 
ensued. It was only the quiet and industrial 
population at home, the merchants of London, 
the manufacturers of the country towns, and the 
tillers of the land, who were impoverished and 
oppressed by the taxes necessary for raising the 
money which was required, that were disposed 
to complain. The knights and soldiers who 
went forth on these campaigns liked to go. 
They not only liked the excitements and the 
freedom of the wild life they led in camp, and 
of the marches which they made across the 
country, but they liked the fighting itself. 
Their hearts were filled with animosity and 
hatred against their foes, and they were at any 
time perfectly willing to risk their lives for the 



A.D. 1380.] Chivalry. 217 

Their love of glory. Story of De Langurant. His men. 

opportunity of gratifying these passions. They 
were also greatly influenced by a love for the 
praise and glory which they acquired by the per- 
formance of any great or brilliant feat of arms. 

This led them often to engage in single per- 
sonal combats, such, for example, as this. There 
was a certain French knight, named De Lan- 
gurant: he was making an incursion into the 
English territories in the neighborhood of Bor- 
deaux. One day he was scouring the country 
at the head of about forty troopers, armed with 
lances. At the head of this troop he came into 
the neighborhood of a village which was in the 
hands of the English, and was defended by an 
English garrison. When he approached the 
village he halted his men, and posted them in 
ambush in a wood. 

" You are to remain here a while," said he. 
" I am going on alone before the town, to see if 
I can not find some body to come out to fight 
me in single combat." 

The object of De Langurant in this plan was 
to show his daring, and to perform a brave ex- 
ploit which he might have to boast of, and glo- 
ry over afterward among his brother soldiers. 

The men did as he had commanded them, 
and concealed themselves in the wood. De 
Langurant then rode on alone, his lance fixed 



218 King Richard II. [A.D.1380. 

He challenges the governor of the castle to single combat. 

in its rest, and his helmet glittering in the sun, 
until he reached the gate of the town. Then 
he halted and challenged the sentinel. 

The sentinel demanded what he wanted. 

"Where is the captain of this garrison?" said 
the trooper. "I wish you to go and find him, 
and tell him that Lord De Langurant is at the 
gates of the town, and wishes to have a tilt with 
him. I dare him to come and fight with me, 
since he pretends that he is such a valiant man. 
Tell him that if he does not come, I will pro- 
claim him every where as a coward that did 
not dare to come out and meet me." 

The name of the captain whom De Langurant 
thus challenged was Bernard Courant. It hap- 
pened that one of Bernard's servants was upon 
the gate, near the sentinel, at the time this chal- 
lenge was given. He immediately called out 
to De Langurant, saying, 

' ' I have heard what you have said, Sir Knight, 
and I will go immediately and inform my mas- 
ter. You may rely upon seeing him in a few 
minutes, if you will wait, for he is no coward." 

Bernard was greatly incensed when he heard 
the impertinent and boasting message which De 
Langurant had sent him. He started up im- 
mediately and called for his arms, command- 
ing, at the same time, that his horse should be 



Chivalry. 219 

Encounter of the knights. Use of lances. 

saddled. He was very soon equipped and 
ready. The gate was opened, the drawbridge 
let down, and he sallied forth. De Langurant 
was waiting for him on the plain. 

The knights were both mounted on furious 
chargers ; and, after a moment's pause, during 
which they eyed each other with looks of fierce 
defiance, they put spurs to their horses, and the 
horses began to gallop toward each other at the 
top of their speed. Each of the knights, as he 
advanced, had one end of his lance supported 
in its rest, while he pointed the other directly 
toward his antagonist, with a view of striking 
him with it as he rode by, watching, at the same 
time, the terrible point which was coming to- 
ward him, in hopes to avoid it if possible, and, 
if not, to bear up against the blow so firmly as 
not to be unhorsed. The lances were very long, 
and were made of very solid wood, but the chief 
momentum of the blow which they were in- 
tended to give came from the end of them be- 
ing supported in a rest, which was connected 
with the saddle in such a manner that the 
whole impetus of the horse, as it were, was com- 
municated to the lance, and this impetus was so 
great, that if a lance struck in such a manner 
that it could not glance off, and did not over- 
throw the man, but met with a solid resistance, 



220 



King Eichard II. 



Manner in which such combats were fought. 




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Chivalry. 221 

Result of the combat between De Langurant and Bernard. 

it was often shivered to atoms by the shock. 
This happened in the present case. The lances 
of both combatants were shivered at the first 
encounter. The riders were, however, unin- 
jured. The horses wheeled, made a short cir- 
cuit, and rushed toward each other again. At 
the second encounter, Bernard brought down so 
heavy a blow with a battle-axe upon the iron 
armor that covered De Langurant's shoulder, 
that the unfortunate trooper was hurled out of 
his saddle and thrown to the ground. 

As soon as Bernard could rein in his horse 
again and bring him round, he galloped up to 
the spot where De Langurant had fallen, and 
found him attempting to raise himself up from 
the ground. At the same time, the horsemen 
whom De Langurant had left in the wood, and 
who had been watching the combat from their 
place of ambush, seeing their master unhorsed, 
began to put themselves in motion to come to 
his rescue. Bernard, who was a man of pro- 
digious strength, reached down from his horse 
as he rode over his fallen enemy, and seized 
hold of his helmet. His horse, in the mean 
time, going on, and Bernard holding to the hel- 
met with all his force, it was torn off from its 
fastenings, and De Langurant's head was left 
unprotected and bare. 



222 King Eichaed II. 

De Langurant refuses to surrender. His fate. 

Bernard threw the helmet down upon the 
ground under his horse's feet. Then drawing 
his dagger, he raised it over De Langurant's 
head, and called upon him to surrender. 

" Surrender 1" said he. " Surrender this in- 
stant, or you are a dead man." 

The men in ambush were coming on, and De 
Langurant hoped they would be able to rescue 
him, so he did not reply. Bernard, knowing 
that he had not a moment to spare, drove the 
dagger into De Langurant's head, and then gal- 
loped away back through the gates into the 
town, just in time to avoid the troop of horse- 
men from the ambush, who were bearing down 
at full speed toward the spot, and were now 
just at hand. 

The gates of the town were closed, and the 
drawbridge was taken up the moment that Ber- 
nard had entered, so that he could not be pur- 
sued. The horsemen, therefore, had nothing to 
do but to bear away their wounded commanded 
to the nearest castle which was in their pos* 
session. The next day he died. 

While the barons and knights were thus 
amusing themselves at the beginning of Eich- 
ard's reign with fighting for castles and prov- 
inces, either for the pleasure of fighting, or for 



Chivalry. 223 

Intolerable tyranny of the nobles in those days. 

the sake of the renown or the plunder which 
they acquired when they were fortunate enough 
to gain the victory, the great mass of the people 
of England were taxed and oppressed by their 
haughty masters to an extent almost incredible. 
The higher nobles were absolutely above all 
law. One of them, who was going to set off on 
a naval expedition into France, seized, in the 
English sea-port which he was leaving, a num- 
ber of women, the wives and daughters of the 
citizens, and took them on board his ship, to be 
at the disposal there of himself and his fellow 
grandees. For this intolerable injury the hus- 
bands and fathers had absolutely no remedy. 
To crown the wickedness of this deed, when, 
soon after the fleet had left the port, a storm 
arose, and the women were terrified at the dan- 
ger they were in, and their fright, added to the 
distress they felt at being thus torn away from 
their ^families and homes, made them complete- 
ly and uncontrollably wretched, the merciless 
nobles threw them overboard to stop their cries. 
Taxes were assessed, too, at this time, upon 
all the people of the kingdom, that were of an 
extremely onerous character. These taxes were 
farmed, as the phrase is ; that is, the right to 
collect them was sold to contractors, called farm- 
ers of the revenue, who paid a certain sum out- 



224 King Bichard II [AD. 1380. 

Oppression of the tax-gatherers. Richard 1 s helplessness. 

right to the government, and then were entitled 
to all that the j could collect of the tax. Thus 
there was no supervision over them in their ex- 
actions, for the government, being already paid, 
cared for nothing more. The consequence was, 
that the tax-gatherers, who were employed by 
the contractors, treated the people in the most 
oppressive and extortionate manner. If the 
people made complaints, the government would 
not listen to them, for fear that if they inter- 
fered with the tax-gatherers in collecting the 
taxes, the farmers would not pay so much the 
next time. 

Eichard himself, of course, knew nothing 
about all these things, or, if he did know of 
them, he was wholly unable to do any thing to 
prevent them. He was completely in the pow- 
er of his uncles, and of the other great nobles 
of the time. The public discontent, however, 
grew at last so great that there was nothing 
wanted but a spark to cause it to break out into 
a flame. There was such a spark furnished at 
length by an atrocious insult and injury offered 
to a young girl, the daughter of a tiler, by one 
of the tax-gatherers. This led to a formidable 
insurrection, known in history as Wat Tyler's 
insurrection. I shall relate the story of this 
insurrection in the next chapter. 



A.D.1381.] The Insurrection. 225 

Real name of Wat Tyler. State of the country. 



Chapter IX. 
Wat Tyler's Insurrection. 

THE insurrection to which a large portion 
of the people of England were driven by 
the crnel tyranny and oppression which they 
suffered in the early part of King Richard's 
reign is commonly called Wat Tyler's insurrec- 
tion, as if the affair with Wat Tyler were the 
cause and moving spring of it, whereas it was, 
in fact, only an incident of it. 

The real name of this unhappy man was John 
Walter. He was a tiler by trade — that is, his 
business was to lay tiles for the roofs of houses, 
according to the custom of roofing prevailing 
in those days. So he was called John Walter, 
the Tiler, or simply Walter the Tiler; and 
from this his name was abridged to Wat Tyler. 

The whole country was in a state of great 
discontent and excitement on account of the 
oppressions which the people suffered before 
Walter appeared upon the stage at all. When 
at length the outbreak occurred, he came for- 
ward as one of the chief leaders of it ; there 
were however, several other leaders. The 



226 King Bichaed II [AD. 1381. 

Names of Walter' s confederates. Character of these men. 

names by which the principal of them were 
known were Jack Straw, William Wraw, Jack 
Shepherd, John Milner, Hob Carter, and John 
Ball. It is supposed that many of these names 
were fictitious, and that the men adopted them 
partly to conceal their real names, and partly 
because they supposed that they should ingra- 
tiate themselves more fully with the lower class- 
es of the people by assuming these familiar and 
humble appellations. 

The historians of the times say that these 
leaders were all very bad men. They may have 
been so, though the testimony of the historians 
is not conclusive on this point, for they belong- 
ed to, and wrote in the interest of the upper 
classes, their enemies. The poor insurgents 
themselves never had the opportunity to tell 
their own story, either in respect to themselves 
or their commanders. 

Still, it is highly probable that they were bad 
men. It is not generally the amiable, the gen- 
tle, and the good that are first to rise, and fore- 
most to take the lead in revolts against tyrants 
and oppressors. It is, on the other hand, far 
more commonly the violent, the desperate, and 
the bad that are first goaded on to assume this 
terrible responsibility. It is, indeed, one of the 
darkest features of tyranny that it tends, by the 



The Insukrection. 227 

Condition of the lower classes at this time. 

reaction which follows it, to invest this class of 
men with great power, and to commit the best 
interests of society, and the lives of great num- 
bers of men, for a time at least, entirely to the 
disposal of the most reckless and desperate char- 
acters. 

The lower classes of the people of England 
had been held substantially as slaves by the 
nobles and gentry for many generations. They 
had long submitted to this, hopeless of any 
change. But they had gradually become en- 
lightened in respect to their natural rights ; and 
now, when the class immediately above them 
were so grievously oppressed and harassed by 
the taxes which were assessed upon them, and 
still more by the vexatious and extortionate 
mode in which the money was collected, they 
all began to make common cause, and, when f 
the rebellion broke out, they rose in one mass, 
freemen and bondmen together. 

There was a certain priest named John Ball, 
who, before the rebellion broke out, had done 
much to enlighten the people as to their rights, 
and had attempted to induce them to seek re- 
dress at first in a peaceable manner. He used 
to make speeches to the people in the market- 
place, representing to them the hardships which 
they endured by the oppressions of the nobility, 



228 King Richard II. 

Ball's proposal. Other orators. Their discourses. 

and urging them to combine together to petition 
the king for a redress of their grievances. " The 
king will listen to us, I am sure," said he, "if 
we go to him together in a body and make our 
request ; but if he will not hear us, then we 
must redress our grievances ourselves the best 
way we can." 

The example of Ball was followed by many 
other persons; and, as always happens in such 
cases, the excitement among the people, and 
their eagerness to hear, brought out a great 
many spectators, whose only object was to see 
who could awaken the resentment and anger 
of their audiences in the highest degree, and 
produce the greatest possible excitement. These 
orators, having begun with condemning the ex- 
travagant wealth, the haughty pretensions, and 
the cruel oppressions of the nobles, and con- 
trasting them with the extreme misery and 
want of the common people, whom they held 
as slaves, proceeded at length to denounce all 
^inequalities in human condition, and to demand 
that all things should be held in common. 

" Things will never go on well in England," 
said they, "until all these distinctions shall be 
leveled, and the time shall come when there 
shall be neither vassal nor lord, and these proud 
nobles shall be no more masters than ourselves. 



The Insurrection. 229 

Mixture of truth and error in their complaints. 

How ill have they used us ! And what right 
have they to hold us in this miserable bondage? 
Are we not all descended from the same parents, 
Adam and Eve ? What right have one set of 
men to make another set their slaves ? What 
right have they to compel us to toil all our lives 
to earn money, that they may live at ease and 
spend it? They are clothed in velvets and rich 
stuffs, ornamented with ermine and furs, while 
we are half naked, or clothed only in rags. 
They have wines, and spices, and fine bread, 
while we have nothing but rye, and the refuse 
of the straw. They have manors and hand- 
some seats, while we live in miserable cabins, 
and have to brave the wind and rain at our la- 
bor in the fields, in order that, with the pro- 
ceeds of our toil, they may support their pomp 
and luxury. And if we do not perform our 
services, or if they unjustly think that we do 
not, we are beaten, and there is no one to whom 
we can complain or look for justice." 

There is obviously some truth and some ex- 
travagance in these complaints. Men deprived 
of their rights, as these poor English serfs were, 
and goaded by the oppressions which they suf- 
fered almost to despair, will, of course, be ex- 
travagant in their complaints. None but those 
totally ignorant of human nature would expect 



230 King Eichard II. 

Necessary inequality among men. 

men to be moderate and reasonable when in 
such a condition, and in such a state of mind. 

The truth is, that there always has been, and 
there always will necessarily be, a great ine- 
quality in the conditions, and a great differ- 
ence in the employments of men ; but this fact 
awakens no dissatisfaction or discontent when 
those who have the lower stations of life to fill 
are treated as they ought to be treated. If they 
enjoy personal liberty, and are paid the fair 
wages which they earn by their labor, and are 
treated with kindness and consideration by 
those whose duties are of a higher and more 
intellectual character, and whose position in life 
is superior to theirs, they are, almost without 
exception, satisfied and happy. It is only when 
they are urged and driven hard and long by 
unfeeling oppression that they are ever aroused 
to rebellion against the order of the social state ; 
and then, as might be expected, they go to ex- 
tremes, and, if they get the power into their 
hands, they sweep every thing away, and over- 
whelm themselves and their superiors in one 
common destruction. 

Young persons sometimes imagine that the 
American doctrine of the equality of man re- 
fers to equality of condition ; and even grown 
persons, who ought to think more clearly and 



The Insurrection. 231 

The true doctrine of equality. Origin of Wat Tyler's insurrection. 

be more reasonable, sometimes refer to the dis- 
tinctions of rich and poor in this country as 
falsifying our political theories. But the truth 
is, that, in our political theory of equality, it is 
not at all equality of condition, but equality of 
rights, that is claimed for man. All men — the 
doctrine is simply — have an equal right to life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Even 
when all are in the full enjoyment of their 
rights, different men will, of course, attain to 
very different degrees of advancement in the 
objects of their desire. Some will be rich and 
some will be poor ; some will be servants and 
some masters ; some will be the employers and 
some the employed ; but, so long as all are equal 
in respect to their rights, none will complain — or, 
at least, no classes will complain. There will, 
of course, be here and there disappointed and 
discontented individuals, but their discontent 
will not spread. It is only by the long-contin- 
ued and oppressive infringement of the natural 
rights of large masses of men that the way is 
prepared for revolts and insurrections. 

It was by this process that the way was pre- 
pared for the insurrection which I am now to 
describe. The whole country for fifty miles 
about London was in a very sullen and angry 
mood, ready for an outbreak the moment that 



232 King Bichakd II. [A.D.138L 

The tax-gatherer in Walter's family. 

any incident should occur to put the excitement 
in motion. This incident was furnished by an 
occurrence which took place in the family of 
Walter the Tiler. 

It seems that a personal tax had been levied 
by the government, the amount of which varied 
with the age of the individual assessed. Chil- 
dren paid so much. Young men and young 
women paid more. The line between these 
classes was not clearly denned, or, rather, the 
tax-gatherers had no means of determining the 
ages of the young people in a family, if they 
suspected the parents reported them wrong. In 
such cases they were often very insolent and 
rude, and a great many quarrels took place, by 
which the people were often very much in- 
censed. The tax-gatherer came one day into 
"Walter's house to collect the tax. Walter him- 
self was away, engaged at work tiling a house 
near by. The only persons that were at home 
were his wife and a young daughter just grow- 
ing to womanhood. The tax-gatherer said that 
the girl was full-grown, and that they must pay 
the higher tax for her. Her mother said, "No, 
she is not full-grown yet ; she is only a child." 
The tax-gatherer then said he would soon find 
out whether she was a woman or not, and went 
to her to take hold of her, offering her rudeness 



AD. 1381.] The Insurrection. 233 

Intolerable outrage. The tax-gatherer killed. 

and violence of the worst possible character. 
The poor girl screamed and struggled to get 
away from him. Her mother ran to the door, 
and made a great outcry, calling for help. Wal- 
ter, hearing the cries, seized for a club a heavy 
implement which he used in tiling, and ran 
home. As soon as he entered the house, he 
demanded of the officer, who had now left his 
daughter and came forward to meet him, what 
he meant by conducting in so outrageous a man- 
ner in his house. The officer replied defiantly, 
and advanced toward Walter to strike him. 
Walter parried the stroke, and then, being 
roused to perfect phrensy by the insult which 
his daughter had received and the insolence of 
the tax-gatherer, he brought his club down upon 
the tax-gatherer's head with such a blow as to 
break his skull and kill him on the spot. The 
blow was so violent that the man's brains were 
scattered all about the floor. 

The news of this occurrence spread like wild- 
fire through the town. The people all took 
Walter's part, and they began to assemble. It 
seems that a great many of them had had their 
daughters maltreated in the same way by the 
tax-gatherers, but had not dared to resist or to 
complain. They now, however, flocked around 
the house of Walter, and promised to stand by 



234 King Kichard II. 

Plan of the insurgents to march to London. 

him to the end. The plan was proposed that 
they should march to London, and in a body 
appeal to the king, and call upon him to re 
dress their wrongs. 

" He is young," said they, " and he will have 
pity upon us, and be just to us. Let us go in 
a body and petition him." 

The news of the movement spread to all the 
neighboring towns, and very soon afterward a 
vast concourse collected, and commenced their 
march toward London. They were joined on 
the road by large companies that came from 
the villages and towns on the way, until at 
length Walter and his fellow-leaders found 
themselves at the head of from sixty to one 
hundred thousand men. 

The whole country was, of course, thrown 
into a state of great alarm. The Duke of Lan- 
caster, who was particularly obnoxious to the 
people, was absent at this time. He was on the 
frontiers of Scotland. The king was in his pal- 
ace ; but, on hearing tidings of the insurrection, 
he went to the Tower, which is a strong cas- 
tle built on the banks of the river, in the low- 
er part of London. A number of the nobles 
who had most cause to fear the mob went with 
him, and shut themselves up there. The Prin- 
cess of Wales, Kichard's mother, happened to 




V1BW OF TUB TOWER OF LONDON, AS BEEN FROM THE RIVER. 



The Insurrection. 237 

Ke-enforcements by the way. Oaths administered. 

be at Canterbury at the time, having gone there 
on a pilgrimage. She immediately set out on 
her return to London, but she was intercepted 
on the way by Tyler and his crowd of follow- 
ers. The crowd gathered around the carriage, 
and frightened the princess very much indeed, 
but they did her no harm. After detaining 
her for some time, they let her pass on. She 
immediately made the best of her way to the 
Tower, where she joined her son. 

As fast as companies of men came from the 
villages and towns along the road to join the 
insurgents, the leaders administered to them an 
oath. The oath bound them, 

1. Always to be faithful and true to King 
Richard. 

2. Never to submit to the reign of any king 
named John. This was aimed at the Duke of 
Lancaster, whose name was John, and whom 
they all specially hated. 

3. Always to follow and defend their lead- 
ers whenever called upon to do so, and always 
to be ready to march themselves, and to bring 
their neighbors with them, at a moment's warn- 
ing. 

4. To demand the abrogation of all the ob- 
noxious taxes, and never to submit again to the 
collection of them. 



238 King Eichard II. 

The Archbishop of Canterbury. Case of Sir John Newton. 

In this manner the throngs moved on along 
the roads leading to London. They became 
gradually more and more excited and violent 
as they proceeded. Soon they began to attack 
the houses of knights, and nobles, and officers 
of the government which they passed on the 
way ; and many persons, whom they supposed 
to be their enemies, they killed. At Canter- 
bury they pillaged the palace of the archbishop. 
The Archbishop of Canterbury, then as now, 
drew an immense revenue from the state, and 
lived in great splendor, and they justly con- 
ceived that the luxury and ostentation in which 
he indulged was in some degree the cause of 
the oppressive taxation that they endured. 

They assaulted a castle on the way, and made 
prisoner of a certain knight named Sir John 
Newton, whom they found in it, and compelled 
him to go with them to London. The knight 
was very unwilling to go with them, and at first 
seemed determined not to do so ; but they dis- 
posed of his objections in a very summary 
manner. 

" Sir John," said they, " unless you go with 
us at once, and in every thing do exactly as we 
order you, you are a dead man." 

So Sir John was compelled to go. They took 
two of his children with them also, to hold as 



A.D.138L] The Insurrection. 239 

Sir John Newton is sent as an embassador to the king. 

security, they said, for their father's good be- 
havior. 

There were other parties of the insurgents 
who made prisoners in this way of men of rank 
and family, and compelled them to ride at the 
head of their respective columns, as if they were 
leaders in the insurrection. 

In this manner the throngs moved on, until 
at length, approaching the Thames, they arrived 
at Blackheath and Greenwich, two villages be- 
low London, farther down than the Tower, and 
near the bank of the river. Here they halted, 
and determined to send an embassage to the 
king to demand an audience. The embassador 
that they were to send was the knight, Sir John 
Newton. 

Sir John did not dare to do otherwise than 
as the insurgents directed. He went to the riv- 
er, and, taking a boat, he crossed over to the 
Tower. The guards received him at the gate, 
and he was conducted into the presence of the 
king. 

He found the king in an apartment with the 
princess his mother, and with a number of the 
nobles and officers of his court. They were all 
in a state of great suspense and anxiety, await- 
ing tidings. They knew that the whole coun- 
try was in commotion, but in respect to what 



240 King Richard II. [AD. 1381. 

Interview between Sir John and the king at the Tower. 

they were themselves to do in the emergency 
they seem to have had no idea. 

Sir John was himself one of the officers of 
the government, and so he was well known to 
all the courtiers. He fell on his knees as soon 
as he entered the king's presence, and begged 
his majesty not to be displeased with him for 
the message that he was about to deliver. 

" I assure your majesty," said he, " that I 
come not voluntarily, but on compulsion." 

The king said to him that he had nothing to 
fear, and directed him to proceed at once and 
deliver his message. 

The knight then said that the people who 
had assembled wished to see the king, and he 
urgently requested that his majesty would come 
and meet them at Blackheath. 

" They wish you to come by yourself alone," 
said he. " And your majesty need have no fear 
for your person, for they will not do you the 
least harm. They have always respected you, 
and they will continue to respect and honor 
you as their king. They only wish to tell you 
some things which they say it is very necessary 
that your majesty should hear. They have not 
informed me what it is that they wish to say, 
since they desire to communicate it themselves 
directly to your majesty." 



The Insurrection. 241 

Sir John returns to the insurgents. 

The knight concluded by imploring the king 
to grant his subjects a favorable answer if he 
could, or at least to allow him to return to them 
with such a reply as would convince them that 
he, their messenger, had fairly delivered his 
message. 

"Because," said he, "they hold my children 
as hostages, and unless I return they will surely 
put them to death." 

The king replied that the knight should have 
an answer very soon, and he immediately called 
a council of his courtiers to consider what should 
be done. There was much difference of opin- 
ion, but it was finally concluded to send word 
to the men that the king would come down the 
river on the following day to speak with them, 
and that, if the leaders would come to the bank 
of the river opposite Blackheath, he would meet 
them there. 

So Sir John Newton left the Tower, and, re- 
crossing the river in his boat, went back to 
the camp of the insurgents, and reported to the 
leaders the answer of the king. 

They were very much pleased to hear that 
the king was coming to meet them. The news 
was soon communicated to all the host, and it 
gave universal satisfaction. There were sixty 
thousand men on the ground, it is said, and, of 

Q 



242 King Bichard II. 



The king goes down to meet the insurgents. 



course, they were very insufficiently provided 
with food, and not at all with shelter. They, 
however, began to make arrangements to spend 
the night as well as they could where they were, 
in anticipation of the interview with the king 
on the following day. 

On the following morning the king attended 
mass in solemn state in the chapel of the Tow- 
er, and then immediately afterward entered his 
barge, accompanied by a grand train of officers, 
knights, and barons. The barge, leaving the 
Tower stairs, was rowed down the river to the 
place appointed for the interview. About ten 
thousand of the insurgents had come to the spot, 
and when they saw the barge coming in sight 
with the royal party on board, they burst out 
into such a terrific uproar, with yells, screams, 
shouts, outcries, and frantic gesticulations, that 
they seemed to the king and his party like a 
company of demons. They had Sir John New- 
ton with them. They had brought him down 
to the bank of the river, because, as they said, 
if the king were not to come, they should be- 
lieve that he had imposed upon them in the 
message which he had brought, and in that 
case they were going to cut him to pieces on 
the spot. 

The assembly seemed so noisy and furious 



The Insurrection. 243 

Scene on the bank of the river. 

that the nobles in attendance on the king were 
afraid to allow him to land. They advised him 
to remain in the barge, at a little distance from 
the shore, and to address the people from the 
deck. The king resolved to do so. So the 
barge lay floating on the river, the oarsmen 
taking a few strokes from time to time to re- 
cover the ground lost by the drift of the cur- 
rent. The king stood upon the deck of the 
barge, with his officers around him, and asked 
the men on the shore what they wished for. 

"I have come at your request," said he, "to 
hear what you have to say."* 

Such an arrangement as this for communi- 
cating with a mass of desperate and furious 
men would not have been safe under circum- 
stances similar to those of the present day. A 
man standing in this way on the deck of a boat, 
within speaking distance of the shore, might, 
with a rifle, or even with a musket, have been 
killed in a moment, by any one of the thou- 
sands on the shore. In those days, however, 
when the only missiles were spears, javelins, 
and arrows, a man might stand at his ease with- 
in speaking distance of his enemies, entirely out 
of reach of their weapons. 

When the crowd upon the shore saw that 
* See Frontispiece. 



244 King Eichard II. [A.D.1381. 

Parley with the insurgents. r ] he ki g retires. 

the king was waving his hand to them in or- 
der to silence them, and that he was trying to 
speak, they became in some measure calm; 
and when he asked again what they wished 
for, the leaders replied by saying that they 
wished him to come on shore. They desired 
him to land, they said, so that he could better 
hear what they had to say. 

One of the officers about the king replied 
that that could not be. 

" The king can not land among you," he 
said. " You are not properly dressed, nor in a 
fit condition, in any respect, to come into his 
majesty's presence." 

Hereupon the noise and clamor was renew- 
ed, and became more violent than ever, the men 
insisting that the king should land, and filling 
the air with screams, yells, and vociferations of 
all sorts, which made the scene truly terrific. 
The counselors of the king insisted that it was 
not safe for the king to remain any longer on 
the river, so the oarsmen were ordered to pull 
their oars, and the barge immediately began to 
recede from the shore, and to move back up 
the river. It happened that the tide was now 
coming in, and this assisted them very much in 
their progress, and the barge was swept back 
rapidly toward the Tower. 



A.B. 1381.] The Insurrection. 2-45 

The insurgents resolve to go into London. 

The insurgents were now in a great rage. 
Those who had come down to the bank of the 
river to meet the king went back in a throng 
to the place where the great body of the rebels 
were encamped on the plain. The news that 
the king had refused to come and hear their 
complaints was soon spread among the whole 
multitude, and the cry was raised, To London ! 
To London ! So the whole mighty mass be- 
gan to put itself in motion, and in a few hours 
all the roads that led toward the metropolis 
were thronged with vast crowds of ragged and 
wretched-looking men, barefooted, bareheaded ; 
some bearing rudely-made flags and banners, 
some armed with clubs and poles, and such oth- 
er substitutes for weapons as they had been able 
to seize for the occasion, and all in a state of 
wild and phrensied excitement. 

The people of London were greatly alarmed 
when they heard that they were coming. There 
was then but one bridge leading into London 
from the southern side of the river. This bridge 
was on the site of the present London Bridge, 
about half a mile above the Tower. There was 
a gate at the end of the bridge next the town, 
and a drawbridge outside of it. The London- 
ers shut the gate and took up the drawbridge, 
to prevent the insurgents from coming in. 



246 King Richaed II. 

The bridge. Excitement in the city. The gates opened. 

When the rioters reached the bridge, and 
found that they were shut out, they, of course, 
became more violent than before, and they be- 
gan to burn and destroy the houses outside. 
Now it happened that many of these houses 
were handsome villas which belonged to the 
rich citizens of the town. These citizens be- 
came alarmed for their property, and they be- 
gan to say that it would be better, after all, to 
open the gates and let the people come in. 

" If we let them come in," said they, " they 
will wander about the streets a while, but they 
will soon get tired and go away ; whereas, by 
opposing and thwarting them, we only make 
them the more violent and mischievous." 

Then, besides, there were a great many of the 
common people of London that sympathized 
with the rioters, and wished to join them. 

"They are our friends," said they. "They 
are striving to obtain redress for grievances 
which we suffer as well as they. Their cause 
is our cause. So let us open the gates and let 
them come in." 

In the mean time, the whole population of 
the city were becoming more and more alarm* 
ed every hour, for the rioters were burning and 
destroying the suburbs, and they declared that 
if the Londoners did not open the gates, they 



The Insurrection. 249 

The insurgents occupy the streets of London. 

would, after ravaging every thing without the 
walls, take the city by storm, and burn and de- 
stroy every thing in it. So it was finally con- 
cluded to open the gates and let the insurgents in. 
They came in in an immense throng, which 
continued for many hours to pour over the 
bridge into the city, like a river of men above, 
flowing athwart the river of water below. As 
they entered the city, they divided and spread 
into all the diverging streets. A portion of 
them stormed a jail, and set all the prisoners 
free. Others marched through the streets, fill- 
ing the air with dreadful shouts and outcries, 
and brandishing their pikes with great fury. 
The citizens, in hopes to conciliate them, brought 
out food for them, and some gave them wine. 
On receiving these provisions, the insurgents 
built fires in the streets, and encamped around 
them, to partake of the food and refreshments 
which the citizens had bestowed. They were 
rendered more good-natured, perhaps, by this 
kind treatment received from the citizens, but 
they soon became excited by the wine which 
they drank, and grew more wild and noisy than 
ever. At length a large party of them began to 
move toward the palace of the Duke of Lan- 
caster. This palace was called the Savoy. It 
stood on the bank of the river, between Lon- 



250 King Richard II. 

Destruction of the Duke of Lancaster's palace. 

don and Westminster, and was a grand and im- 
posing mansion. 

The Duke of Lancaster was an especial ob- 
ject of their hatred. He was absent at this 
time, as has been said, being engaged in milita- 
ry operations on the frontiers of Scotland. The 
mob, however, were determined to destroy his 
palace, and every thing that belonged to it. 

So they broke into the house, murdering all 
who made any resistance, and then proceeded 
to break and destroy every thing the palace 
contained. They built fires in the court-yard 
and in the street, and piled upon them every 
thing movable that would burn. The plate, 
and other such valuables as would not burn, 
they broke up and threw into the Thames. 
They strictly forbade that any of the property 
should be taken away. One man hid a silver 
cup in his bosom, intending to purloin it; but he 
was detected in the act, and his comrades threw 
him, cup and all, as some say, upon the fire ; 
others say they threw him into the Thames; 
at any rate, they destroyed him and his booty 
together. 

" We are here," said they, " in the cause of 
truth and righteousness, to execute judgment 
upon a criminal, and not to become thieves and 
robbers ourselves," 



A.D.1381.] The Insurrection. 253 

Destruction of the Temple. Assassination of Richard I yon. 

When they had destroyed every thing that 
the palace contained, they set fire to the build* 
ing, and burned it to the ground. A portion 
of the walls remained standing afterward for a 
long time, a desolate and melancholy ruin. 

The insurgents felt a special animosity against 
lawyers, whom they considered mercenary in- 
struments in the hands of the nobles for op- 
pressing them. They hung all the lawyers that 
they could get into their hands, and after burn- 
ing the Savoy they went to the Temple, which 
was a spacious edifice containing the courts, 
the chambers of the barristers, and a vast store 
of ancient legal records. They burned and de- 
stroyed the whole. 

It is said, too, that there was a certain man 
in London, a rich citizen, named Richard Lyon, 
who had formerly been Walter the Tiler's mas- 
ter, and had beaten him and otherwise treated 
him in a cruel and oppressive manner. At the 
time that he received these injuries Walter had 
no redress, but now the opportunity had come, 
he thought, for revenge. So he led a gang of 
the most desperate and reckless of the insur- 
gents to Lyon's house, and, seizing their terri- 
fied victim, they dragged him out without mer- 
cy, and cut off his head. The head they stuck 
upon the top of a pike, and paraded it through 



254 King Kichakd II. 

Excesses of the mob. They bivouac near the Tower. 

the streets, a warning, as they said, to all cruel 
and oppressive masters. 

A great many other heads, principally those 
of men who had made themselves particularly 
obnoxious to the insurgents, were paraded 
through the streets in the same manner. 

After spending the day in these excesses, 
keeping all London in a state of dreadful con- 
fusion and alarm, the various bands began to 
move toward night in the direction of the Tow- 
er, where the king and his court had shut them- 
selves up in great terror, not knowing what to 
do to escape from the dreadful inundation of 
poverty and misery which had so suddenly 
poured in upon them. The rioters, when they 
reached the Tower, took possession of a large 
open square before it, and, kindling up great 
bonfires, they began to make arrangements for 
bivouacking there for the night. 



A.D.1381.] Insurrection Ended. 255 

Anxiety and embarrassment of the king. 



Chapter X. 
The End of the Insurrection. 

IN the mean time, within the Tower, where 
the king and his courtiers now found them- 
selves almost in a state of siege, there were con- 
tinual consultations held, and much perplexity 
and alarm prevailed. Some of Richard's ad- 
visers recommended that the most decisive 
measures should be adopted at once. The king 
had in the Tower with him a considerable body 
of armed men. There were also in other parts 
of London and vicinity many more, amounting 
in all to about four thousand. It was recom- 
mended by some of the king's counselors that 
these men should all be ordered to attack the 
insurgents the next morning, and kill them 
without mercy. It is true that there were be- 
tween fifty and one hundred thousand of the 
insurgents; but they had no arms, and no or- 
ganization, and it was not to be expected, there- 
fore, that they could stand a moment, numerous 
as they were, against the king's regular troops. 
They would be slaughtered, it was said, like 
sheep, and the insurrection would be at once 
put down. 



256 King Bichabd II. 

Consultations in the Tower. Various counsels. Mile-End. 

Others thought that this would be a very 
hazardous mode of proceeding, and very uncer- 
tain as to its results. 

"It is much better," said they, " that your 
majesty should appease them, if possible, by fair 
words, and by a show of granting what they 
ask ; for if we once attempt to put them down 
by force, and should not be able to go through 
with it, we shall only make matters a great deal 
worse. The commonalty of London and of all 
England would then join them, and the nobles 
and the government will be swept away entire- 
ly from the land." 

These counsels prevailed. It was decided 
not to attack the rioters immediately, but to 
wait a little, and see what turn things would 
take. 

The next morning, as soon as the insurgents 
were in motion in the great square, they began 
to be very turbulent and noisy, and to threaten 
that they would attack the Tower itself if the 
king did not open the gates to them. It was 
finally determined to yield in part to their re- 
quests. 

There was a certain place in the suburbs of 
London known by the name of Mile-End — so 
called, perhaps, because it was at the end of a 
mile from some place or other. At this place 






Insurrection Ended. 257 

A meeting appointed with the rioters at Mile-End. 

was an extended meadow, to which the people 
of London were accustomed to resort on gala 
days for parades and public amusements. The 
king sent out a messenger from the Tower to 
the leaders of the insurgents with directions to 
say to them that if they would all go to Mile- 
End, he would come out and meet them there. 

They took him at his word, and the whole 
immense mass began to set itself in motion to- 
ward Mile-End. 

They did not all go there, however. Those 
who really desired to have an interview with 
the king, with a view to a redress of their griev- 
ances, repaired to the appointed place of ren- 
dezvous. But of the rest, a large party turned 
toward London, in hopes of pillage and plun- 
der. Others remained near the Tower. This 
last party, as soon as the king and his attend- 
ants had gone to Mile-End, succeeded in forcing 
their way in through the gates, which, it seems, 
had not been left properly guarded, and thus 
gained possession of the Tower. They ransack- 
ed the various apartments, and destroyed every 
thing which came in their way that was at all 
obnoxious to them. They broke into the cham- 
ber of the Princess of Wales, Eichard's mother, 
and, though they did not do the princess any 

personal injury, they terrified her so much by 

II 



258 King Riohakd II. 

The king meets the insurgents at Mile-End. 

their violence and noise that she fainted, and 
was borne away apparently lifeless. Her at- 
tendants carried her down the landing-stairs on 
the river side, and there put her into a covered 
boat, and rowed her away to a place of safety. 

The people in the Tower did not all get off 
so easily. The Archbishop of Canterbury was 
there, and three other prelates of high rank. 
These men were particularly obnoxious to the 
rioters, so they seized them, and without any 
mercy dragged them into the court and cut off 
their heads. The heads they put upon the ends 
of poles, and paraded them in this way through 
the streets of London. 

In the mean time, the king, followed by a 
numerous train of attendants, had proceeded to 
Mile-End, and there met the insurgents, who had 
assembled in a vast concourse to receive him. 
Several of the attendants of the king were afraid 
to follow him into the danger to which they 
thought he was exposing himself by going 
among such an immense number of lawless and 
desperate men. Some of them deserted him on 
the way to the place of meeting, and rode off 
in different directions to places of safety. The 
king himself, however, though so young — for 
he was now only about sixteen years of age — 
had no fear. As soon as he came to the mead- 



Insurrection Ended. 259 

Parley with them. The king accedes to their demands. 

ow at Mile-End, where the insurgents had now 
assembled to the number of sixteen thousand, 
he rode forward boldly into the midst of them, 
and opened the conference at once by asking 
them what they desired. 

The spokesman whom they had appointed 
for the occasion stated their demands, which 
were that they should be made free. They had 
hitherto been held as serfs, in a bondage which 
exposed them to all sorts of cruelties and op- 
pressions, since they were amenable, not to law, 
but wholly to the caprice and arbitrary will of 
individual masters. They demanded, therefore, 
that Richard should emancipate them from this 
bondage, and make them free. 

It was determined by Richard and his coun- 
selors that this demand should be complied 
with, or, at least, that they should pretend to 
comply with it, and that decrees of emancipation 
for the different counties and districts which 
the various parties of insurgents had come from 
should be immediately issued. This decision 
seemed to satisfy them. The leaders, or at least 
a large portion of them, said that it was all they 
wanted, and several parties immediately began 
to set out on their return to their several homes. 

But there were a great many who were not 
satisfied. An insurrection like this, whatever 



260 King Eichard II. 

Effect of the concessions. Preparation of the decrees. 

may be the object and design of the original 
movers in it, always brings out into promi- 
nence, and invests with temporary power, vast 
numbers of desperate and violent men, whose 
passions become inflamed by the excitement of 
movement and action, and by sympathy with 
each other, and who are never satisfied to stop 
with the attainment of the objects originally de- 
sired. Thus, in the present instance, although 
a : great number of the rebels were satisfied with 
the promises made by the king at Mile-End, and 
so went home, multitudes still remained. Large 
parties went to London to join those who had 
already gone there in hopes of opportunities for 
pillage. Others remained at their encamp- 
ments, doubting whether the king would real- 
ly keep the promises which he had made them, 
and send the decrees. Then, besides, fresh par- 
ties of insurgents were continually arriving at 
London and its neighborhood, so that the dan- 
ger seemed by no means to have passed away. 
The king, immediately caused the decree to 
be prepared. Thirty secretaries were employ- 
ed at once to write the several copies required. 
They were all of the same form. They were 
written, as was customary with royal decrees 
in those times, in the Latin language, were en- 
grossed carefully upon parchment, signed by the 



Insurrection - Ended. 261 

Scenes ri the night in and around London. 

king, and sealed by his seal. The announce- 
ment that the secretaries were preparing these 
decrees, when the work had been commenced, 
tended greatly to satisfy the insurgents, and 
many more of them went home. Still, vast 
numbers remained, and the excitement among 
them, and their disposition for mischief, was ev- 
idently on the increase. 

Such was the state of things during the night 

o o o 

of Friday. The various parties of the insur- 
gents were encamped in and around London, 
the glare of their fires flashing on the build- 
ings and lighting up the sky, and their shouts, 
sometimes of merriment and sometimes of an- 
ger, filling the air. The peaceable inhabitants 
passed the night in great alarm. Some of them 
endeavored to conciliate the good-will of the in- 
surgents by offering them food and wine. The 
wine, of course, excited them, and made them 
more noisy than ever. Their numbers, too, 
were all the time increasing, and no one could 
foresee how or when the trouble would end. 

The next morning, a grand consultation 
among the rebels was determined upon. It 
was to be held in a great open space called 
Smithfield — a space set apart as a cattle-mar- 
ket, at the outskirts of London, toward the 
north. All the leaders who had not returned 



262 King Richard II. [A.D.1381. 

The next morning. The king meets the insurgents at Smithfield. 

to their homes were present at the consulta- 
tion. Among them, and at the head of them, 
indeed, was Wat Tyler. 

The king that morning, it happened, having 
spent the night at the private house down the 
river where his mother had sought refuge aft- 
er making her escape from the Tower, conclud- 
ed to go to Westminster to attend mass. His 
real motive for making this excursion was prob- 
ably to show the insurgents that he did not fear 
them, and also, perhaps, to make observations 
in respect to their condition and movements, 
without appearing to watch them. 

He accordingly went to Westminster, accom- 
panied and escorted by a suitable cortege and 
guard. The mayor of the city of London was 
with the party. After hearing mass at West- 
minster, the king set out on his return home ; 
but, instead of going back through the heart of 
London, as he had come, he took a circuit to 
the northward by a road which, as it happen- 
ed, led through Smithfield, where a great body 
of the insurgents had assembled, as has already 
been said. Thus the king came upon them 
quite unexpectedly both to himself and to them. 
When he saw them, he halted, and the horse- 
men who were with him halted too. There 
were about sixty horsemen in his train. 



Insurrection Ended. 263 

Another parley. "Walter advances. His orders to his men. 

Some of his officers thought it would be bet- 
ter to avoid a rencounter with so large a body 
of the insurgents — for there were about twenty 
thousand on the field — and recommended that 
the king's party should turn aside, and go home 
another way ; but the king said " No ; he pre- 
ferred to speak to them." 

He would go, he said, and ascertain what it 
was that they wanted more. He thought that 
by a friendly colloquy with them he could ap- 
pease them. 

While the king and his party thus halted to 
consider what to do, the attention of the lead- 
ers of the insurgents had been directed toward 
them. They knew at once that it was the king. 

" It is the king," said Walter. " I am going 
to meet him and speak with him. All the rest 
of you are to remain here. You must not move 
from this spot until I come back, unless you see 
me make this signal." 

So saying, Walter made a certain gesture 
with his hand, which was to be the signal for 
his men. 

"When you see me make this signal," said 
he, "do you all rush forward and kill every 
man in the troop except the king. You must 
not hurt the king. We will take him and keep 
him. He is young, and we can make him do 



264 King Eichard II. 

Doubt about the fairness of the accounts. 

whatever we say. We will put him at the head 
of our company, as if he were our commander, 
and we were obeying his orders, and we will do 
every thing in his name. In this way we can 
go wherever we please, all over England, and 
do what we think best, and there will be no op- 
position to us." 

When I say that Walter gave these orders 
to his men, I mean that these words were at- 
tributed to him by one of the historians of the 
time. As, however, all the accounts which we 
have of these transactions were written by per- 
sons who hated the insurgents, and wished to 
present their case in the most unfavorable light 
possible, we can not depend absolutely on the 
truth of their accounts, especially in cases like 
this, when they could not have been present to 
hear or see. 

At any rate, Walter rode up alone to meet 
the king. He advanced so near to him that his 
horse's head touched the king's horse. While 
in this position, a conversation ensued between 
him and the king. Walter pointed to the vast 
concourse of men who were assembled in the 
field, and told the king that they were all un- 
der his orders, and that what he commanded 
them to do they would do. The king told him 
that if that were the case, he would do well to 



i 

Insurrection Ended. 265 



Conversation between Walter and the king. 



recommend them all to go to their respective 
homes. He had granted the petition, he said, 
which they had offered the day before, and had 
ordered decrees to be prepared emancipating 
them from their bondage. He asked Walter 
what more they required. 

Walter replied that they wanted the decrees 
to be delivered to them. 

" We are not willing to depart till we get all 
the decrees," said he. " There are all these 
men, and as many more besides in the city, and 
we wish you to give us all the decrees, that we 
may take them home ourselves to our several 
villages and towns." 

The king said that the secretaries were pre- 
paring the decrees as fast as they could, and the 
men might depend that those which had not 
yet been delivered would be sent as soon as 
they were ready to the villages and towns. 

" Go back to your men," he added, " and tell 
them that they had better return peaceably to 
their homes. The decrees will all arrive there 
in due time." 

But Walter did not seem at all inclined to go. 
He looked around upon the king's attendants, 
and seeing one that he had known before, a 
squire, who was in immediate attendance on 
the king's person, he said to him, 



266 King Eichard II. 

Walter gets into a quarrel with the king's squire. 

"What! You here?" 

This squire was the king's sword-bearer. In 
addition to the king's sword, which it was his 
duty to carry, he was armed with a dagger of 
his own. 

"Walter turned his horse toward the squire 
and said, 

"Let me see that dagger that you have got." 

" No," said the squire, drawing back. 

"Yes," said the king, "let him take the dag- 
ger." 

The king was not at all afraid of the rebel, 
and wished to let him see that he was not afraid 
of him. 

So the squire gave Walter the dagger. Wal- 
ter took it and examined it in all its parts very 
carefully, turning it over and over in his hands 
as he sat upon his horse. It w^as very richly 
ornamented, and Walter had probably never 
had the opportunity to examine closely any 
thing so beautifully finished before. 

After having satisfied himself with examin- 
ing the dagger, he turned again to the squire : 

" And now," said he, "let me see your sword." 

" No," said the squire, " this is the king's 
sword, and it is not going into the hands of such 
a lowborn fellow as you. And, moreover," he 
added, after pausing a moment and looking at 



Insurrection Ended. 267 

Walter is at last assaulted and killed. 

Walter with an expression of defiance, "if you 
and I had met somewhere alone, you would not 
have dared to talk as you have done, not for a 
heap of gold as high as this church." 

There was a famous church, called the Church 
of St. Bartholomew, near the place where the 
king and his party had halted. 

" By the powers," said Walter, " I will not 
eat this day before I have your head." 

Seeing that a quarrel was impending, the 
mayor of London and a dozen horsemen rode 
up and surrounded Walter and the squire. 

" Scoundrel !" said the mayor, " how dare you 
utter such threats as those ?" 

11 What business is that of yours?" said Wal- 
ter, turning fiercely toward the mayor. " What 
have you to do with it?" 

"Seize him!" said the king; for the king 
himself was now beginning to lose his patience. , 

The mayor, encouraged by these words, and 
being already in a state of boiling indignation 
and rage, immediately struck a tremendous blow 
upon Walter's head with a cimeter which he 
had in his hand. The blow stunned him, and 
he fell heavily from his horse to the ground. 
One of the horsemen who had come up with 
the mayor — a man named John Stand wich — im- 
mediately dismounted, and thrust the body of 



268 King Bichard II. 

Excitement among his men. Courage and coolness of the king. 

Walter through with, his sword, killing him on 
the spot. 

In the mean time, the crowd of the insur- 
gents had remained where Walter had left them, 
watching the proceedings. They had received 
orders not to move from their position until 
Walter should make the signal ; but when they 
saw Walter struck down from his horse, and 
stabbed as he lay on the ground, they cried 
out, "They have killed our captain. Form the 
lines! form the lines! We will go and kill 
every one of them." 

So they hastily formed in array, and got their 
weapons ready, prepared to charge upon the 
king's party; but Bichard, who in all these 
transactions evinced a degree of bravery and 
coolness very remarkable for a young man of 
sixteen, rode forward alone, and boldly, to meet 
them. 

" G-entlemen," said he, "you have no leader 
but me. I am your king. Eemain quiet and 
peaceable." 

The insurgents seemed not to know what to 
do on hearing these words. Some began to 
move away, but the more violent and determ- 
ined kept their ground, and seemed still bent 
on mischief. The king went back to his party, 
and asked them what they should do next. 



Insurrection Ended. 269 






Alarm conveyed to London. Troops brought to the ground. 

Some advised that they should make for the 
open fields, and try to escape ; but the mayor 
of London advised that they should remain 
quietly where they were. 

" It will be of no use," said he, " for us to try 
to make our escape, but if we remain here we 
shall soon have help." 

The mayor had already sent horsemen into 
London to summon help. These messengers 
spread the cry in the city, " To Smithfield ! 
To Smithfield! They are killing the 
King!" This cry produced universal excite- 
ment and alarm. The bands of armed men 
quartered in London were immediately turned 
out, and great numbers of volunteers too, seiz- 
ing such weapons as they could find, made 
haste to march to Smithfield; and thus, in a 
6hort time, the king found himself supported 
by a body of seven or eight thousand men. 

Some of his advisers then urged that the 
whole of this force should fall at once upon the 
insurgents, and slaughter them without mercy. 
This it was thought that they could easily do, 
although the insurgents were far more numer- 
ous than they ; for the king's party consisted, 
in great measure, of well-armed and well-dis- 
ciplined soldiers, while the insurgents were com- 
paratively a helpless and defenseless rabble. 



270 King Eichard II. 

The insurgents surrender their hanners and disperse. 

The king, however, would not consent to this. 
Perhaps somebody advised him what to. do, or 
perhaps it was his own prudence and modera- 
tion which suggested his course. He sent mes- 
sengers forward to remonstrate calmly with the 
men, and demand of them that they should give 
up their banners. If they would do so, the mes- 
sengers said that the king would pardon them. 
So they gave up their banners. This seemed 
to be the signal of disbanding, and large parties 
of the men began to separate from the mass, and 
move away toward their homes. 

Next, the king sent to demand that those who 
had received decrees of emancipation should re- 
turn them. They did so; and in this way a 
considerable number of the decrees were given 
up. The king tore them to pieces on the field, 
upon the plea that they were forfeited by the 
men's having continued in rebellion after the 
decrees were granted. 

The whole mass of the insurgents began now 
rapidly to get into disorder. They had no head, 
no banners, and the army which was gathering 
against them was increasing in strength and res- 
olution every moment. The dispersal went on 
faster and faster, until at last those that remain- 
ed threw down their weapons and fled to Lon- 
don. 



AD. 1381.] Insurrection Ended. 271 

The king's interview with his mother. 

The king then went home to his mother. 
She was overjoyed to see him safely returning. 

"My dear son," said she, "you can not con- 
ceive what pain and anguish I have suffered for 
you this day." 

"Yes, mother," said Richard, "I have no 
doubt you have suffered a great deal. But it is 
all over now. Now you can rejoice and thank 
God, for I have regained my inheritance, the 
kingdom of England, which I had lost." 

After this there was no farther serious trou- 
ble. The insurgents were disheartened, and 
most of them were glad to make the best of 
their way home. After the danger was past, 
Richard revoked all the decrees of emancipa- 
tion which he had issued, on the ground that 
they had been extorted from him by violence 
and intimidation, and also that the condition 
on which they had been granted, namely, that 
the men should retire at once quietly to their 
homes, had not been complied with on their 
part. He found it somewhat difficult to recov- 
er them all, but he finally succeeded. He also 
sent commissions to all the towns and villages 
which had been implicated in the rebellion, and 
caused great numbers of persons to be tried and 
condemned to death. Many thousands were 



272 King Bichard II 



Final results of the rebellion. 



thus executed. Indeed, the rebellion had ex- 
tended far and wide ; for, besides the disturb- 
ances in and near London, there had been ris- 
ings in all parts of the kingdom, and great ex- 
cesses committed every where. 

When the rebellion was thus quelled, things 
returned for a time into substantially the same 
condition as before, and yet the bondage of the 
people was never afterward so abject and hope- 
less as it had been. A considerable general im- 
provement was the result. Indeed, such out- 
breaks as this against oppression are like the 
earthquakes of South America, which, though 
they cause for the time great terror, and often 
much destruction, still have the effect to raise 
the general level of the land, and leave it for- 
ever afterward in a better condition than before. 

The cause of these rebels, moreover, badly as 
they managed it, was in the main a just cause ; 
and it is to precisely such convulsive struggles 
as these, that have been made from time to time 
by the common people of England in the course 
of their history, that their descendants, the pres- 
ent commons of England and the people of 
America, are indebted for the personal rights 
and liberties which they now enjoy. 



A.D.1382.] Good Queen Anne. 273 

The pla"ning of Richard's first marriage. 



Chapter XL 
Good Queen Anne. 

KING RICHARD was married twice. His 
first queen was named Anne. She was 
a Bohemian princess, and so is sometimes call- 
ed in history Anne of Bohemia. She was, how- 
ever, more commonly called Good Queen Anne. 

The marriage was planned by Richard's cour- 
tiers and counselors when Richard himself was 
about fifteen years old. The negotiations were 
interrupted by the troubles connected with the 
insurrection described in the two last chapters ; 
but immediately after the insurrection was 
quelled they were renewed. The proposals 
were sent to Bohemia by Richard's government. 
After suitable inquiries had been made by 
Anne's parents and friends, the proposals were 
accepted, and preparations were made for send- 
ing Anne to England to be married. Richard 
was now about sixteen years of age. Anne 
was fifteen. Neither of them had ever seen the 
other. 

In due time, when every thing had been made 
ready, the princess set out on her journey, ac- 

S 



274 King Bichard It [A.D.1382. 

Journey of the bridal party toward England. 

companied by a large train of attendants. She 
was under the charge of a nobleman named the 
Duke of Saxony, and of his wife the duchess. 
The duchess was Anne's aunt. Besides the 
duke, there were in the party a number of 
knights, and other persons of distinction, and 
also several young ladies of the court, who 
went to accompany and wait upon the princess. 
There were also many other attendants of low- 
er degree. 

The party traveled slowly, as was the custom 
in those days, until at length they reached Flan- 
ders. Here, at Brussels, the capital, the princess 
was received by the Duke and Duchess of Bra- 
bant, who were her relatives, and was entertain- 
ed by them in a very sumptuous manner. She, 
however, heard alarming news at Brussels. The 
intention of the party had been to take ship on 
the coast of Flanders, and proceed to Calais by 
water. Calais was then in the hands of the En- 
glish, and an embassador with a grand suite had 
been sent from Kichard's court to receive the 
princess on her arrival there, and conduct her 
across the Channel to Dover, and thence to Lon- 
don. 

The reason why the princess and her party 
did not propose to go by land all the way to 
Calais was that, by so doing, they would neces* 



Good Queen Anne. 275 

Their way is cut off by sea. 

sarily pass through the territories of the King 
of France, and they were afraid that the French 
government would intercept them. It was 
known that the government of France had been 
opposed to the match, as tending to give Rich- 
ard too much influence on the Continent. 

But now, on their arrival at Brussels, the bri- 
dal party learned that there was a fleet of Nor- 
man vessels, ten or twelve in number, that were 
cruising to and fro on the coast, between Brus- 
sels and Calais, with a view of blocking up the 
princess's way by sea as well as by land. Both 
she herself and the Duke of Saxony were much 
chagrined at receiving this information, and for 
a time they did not know what to do. At length 
they sent an embassage to Paris, and after some 
difficulties and delay they succeeded in obtain- 
ing the consent of the French government that 
the princess should pass through the French 
territories by land. The embassadors brought 
back a passport for her and for her party. 

Although the King of France thus granted 
the desired permission, he did it in a very un- 
gracious manner, for he took care to say that 
he yielded to the Duke of Saxony's request 
solely out of kindness to his good cousin Anne, 
and a desire to do her a favor, and not at all 
out of regard to the King of England. 



276 King Richard II. 



The bride enters Calais. Great display. 

The princess was detained a month in Brus- 
sels while they were arranging this affair, and 
when at last it was settled she resumed her 
journey, taking the road from Brussels to Ca- 
lais. The Duke of Brabant accompanied her, 
with an escort of one hundred spearmen. This, 
however, was an escort of honor rather than of 
protection, as the duke relied mainly upon the 
French passport for the safety of the party. 

As the party were approaching Calais, they 
were received at the town of Gravelines by the 
English embassador and his suite, who had 
come out from Calais to meet them. This em- 
bassador was the Earl of Salisbury. He was 
attended by a force of one thousand men, name- 
ly, five hundred spearmen and five hundred 
archers. Conducted by this grand escort, and 
accompanied by a large cavalcade of knights 
and nobles, all clad in full armor, and splendid- 
ly mounted, the princess and the ladies in her 
train made a magnificent entry into Calais, 
through the midst of a vast concourse of spec- 
tators, with trumpets sounding and banners 
waving, and their hearts beating high with ec- 
stasy and delight. In passing over the draw- 
bridge and through the gates of Calais, Anne 
felt an emotion of exultation and pride in think- 
ing that she was here entering the dominions 
of her future husband. 



Good Queen Anne. 277 

The bride arrives in E: gland. Great excitement in London. 

The princess did not remain long in Calais. 
She set ont on the following day for Dover. 
The distance across is about twenty miles. 
They were dependent wholly on the wind in 
those days for crossing the Channel ; but the 
princess had a prosperous passage, and arrived 
safely at Dover that night. News then spread 
rapidly all over the country, and ran up to Lon- 
don, that the queen had come. 

The news, of course, produced universal ex 
citement. No certain tidings of the movements 
of the bride had been heard for some weeks 
before, and no one could tell when to expect 
her. Her arrival awakened universal j oy . Par- 
liament was in session at the time. They voted 
a large sum of money to be expended in ar- 
rangements for receiving the young queen in a 
proper manner, and in public rejoicings on the 
occasion. They then immediately adjourned, 
and all the world began to prepare for the ar- 
rival of the royal cortege in London. 

The princess, after resting a day in Dover, 
moved on to Canterbur}^, admiring, as she jour- 
neyed, the beautiful scenery of the country over 
which she was henceforth to be queen. Eich- 
ard's uncle Thomas, the Duke of Gloucester, 
with a large retinue, was ready there to receive 
her. He conducted her to London. As they 



278 King Bichabd II. 

A contrast. The bride enters London. 

approached the city, the lord-mayor of London 
and all the great civic functionaries, with a long 
train of attendants, came out in great state to 
receive her and escort her into town. The 
place of their meeting with her was Blackheath, 
the same place which a year before had been 
the bivouac of the immense horde of ragged 
and miserable men that Wat Tyler and his fel- 
low-insurgents had brought to London. But 
how changed now was the scene ! Then the 
country was excited by the deepest anxiety and 
alarm, and the spectacle on the field was that 
of one immense mass of squalid poverty and 
wretchedness, of misery reduced by hopeless 
suffering to recklessness and despair. Now all 
was gayety and splendor in the spectacle, and 
the whole country was excited to the highest 
pitch of exultation and joy. 

At Blackheath the grand cavalcade was form- 
ed for passing through London. Splendid prep- 
arations had been made in London to receive 
the bride, and to do honor to her passage 
through the city. Many of these preparations 
were similar to those which had been made on 
the occasion of the king's coronation. There 
was a castle and tower, with young girls at the 
top throwing down a shower of golden snow, 
and fountains at the sides flowing with wine, 



A.D.1382.] Good Queen Anne. 279 



Parades and rejoicings. Character of the quaen. 

with fancifully-dressed pages attending to offer 
the princess drink from golden cups. In a 
word, the young and beautiful bride was re- 
ceived by the civic authorities of London with 
the same tokens of honor and the same public 
rejoicings that had been accorded to the king. 

In a few days the marriage took place. The 
ceremony was performed in the chapel royal of 
the king's palace at Westminster. The king 
appeared to be very much pleased with his 
bride, and paid her great attention. After a 
week spent with her and the court in festivities 
and rejoicings in Westminster, he took her up 
the river to the royal castle at Windsor. His 
mother, the Princess of Wales, and other ladies 
of rank, went with them, and formed part of 
their household. They lived here very happily 
together for some time. 

The young queen soon began to evince those 
kind and gracious qualities of heart which aft- 
erward made her so beloved among the people 
of England. Instead of occupying herself sole- 
ly with her own greatness and grandeur, and 
with the uninterrupted round of pleasures to 
which her husband invited her, she began very 
soon to think of the sufferings which she found 
that a great many of the common people of En- 
gland were enduring, and to consider what she 



280 King Kichaed IL 

Why she was called Good Queen Anne. 

could do to relieve them. The condition of the 
people was particularly unhappy at this time, 
for the king and the nobles were greatly exas- 
perated against them on account of the rebel- 
lion, and were hunting out all who could be 
proved, or were even suspected to have been 
engaged in it, and persecuting them in the most 
severe and oppressive manner, and they were 
bloody and barbarous beyond precedent. The 
young queen, hearing of these things, was great- 
ly distressed, and she begged the king, for her 
sake, to grant a general pardon to all his sub- 
jects, on the occasion of her coronation, which 
ceremony was now soon to be performed. The 
king granted this request, and thus peace and 
tranquillity were once more fully restored to 
the land. 

After this, during all her life, Anne watched 
for every opportunity to do good, and she was 
continually engaged in gentle but effective ef- 
forts to heal dissensions, to assuage angry feel* 
ings, and to alleviate suffering. She was a gem 
eral peace-maker ; and her lofty position, and 
the great influence which she exercised oveT 
the king, gave her great power to accomplish 
the benevolent purposes which the kindness of 
her heart led her to form. 

The arrival of the young queen produced a 



G-ood Queen Anne. 281 

Ancient drawings. Cuiuous fashions of those times. 

great sensation among the ladies of Kichard's 
court, in consequence of the new fashions which 
she introduced into England. The fashions of 
dress in those days were very peculiar. We 
learn what they were from the pictures, drawn 
with the pen or painted in water-colors, in the 
manuscripts of those days that still remain in 
the old English libraries. There are a great 
many of these drawings, and, as they agree to- 
gether in the style and fashion of the costumes 
represented, there is no doubt that they give 
us correct ideas of the dresses really worn. Be- 
sides, there are many allusions in the chronicles 
of those times, and in poems and books of ac- 
counts, which correspond precisely with the 
drawings, and thus confirm their correctness 
and accuracy. 

The engravings on the following page are 
copied from one of these ancient manuscripts. 

Observe the singular forms of the caps, both 
those of the men and of the women. The men 
wore sometimes jackets, and sometimes long 
gowns which came down to the ground. The 
most singular feature of the dresses of the men, 
however, is the long-pointed shoes. Were it not 
that fashions are often equally absurd at the 
present day, we should think it impossible that 
such shoes as these could ever have been made. 



282 



KlKG KlCHAKD II. 






Costumes of Richard's time. 




MALE COSTUME IN THE TIME OF RICHARD II. 




fEMALE COSTUME IN THE TIME OF RICHARD II. 



Good Queen Anne. 



283 



The Cracovvs. 



Origin of the name. 



The horned caps. 



These shoes were called Cracows. Cracow 
was a town in Poland which was at that time 
within the dominions of Anne's father, and it 
is supposed that the fashion of wearing these 
shoes may have been brought into England by 
some of the gentlemen in Anne's train, when 
she came to England to be married. It is known 
that the queen did introduce a great many for- 
eign fashions to the court, and, among the rest, 




FASHIONABLE HEAD-DRESSES. 



a fashion of head-dress for ladies, which was 
quite as strange as peaked shoes for the gentle- 



284 King Richard II. 

Description of the horns. Tins. Side-saddles. 

men. It consisted of what was called the horn- 
ed cap. 

These horns were often two feet high, and 
sometimes two feet wide from one side to the 
other. The frame of this head-dress was made 
of wire and pasteboard, and the covering was 
of some glittering tissue or gauze. There were 
other head-dresses scarcely less monstrous than 
these. Some of them are represented in the 
engraving. These fashions, when introduced 
by the queen, spread with great rapidity among 
all the court ladies, and thence to all fashion- 
able circles in England. 

It is said, too, that it was this young queen 
who first introduced pins into England. Dress- 
es had been fastened before by little skewers 
made of wood or ivory. Queen Anne brought 
pins, which had been made for some time in 
Germany, and the use of them soon extended 
all over England. 

Side-saddles for ladies on horseback were a 
third fashion which Queen Anne is said to have 
introduced. The side-saddle which she brought 
was, however, of a ver}^ simple construction. It 
consisted of a seat placed upon the horse's back, 
with a sort of step depending from it on one 
side for the feet to rest upon. Both feet were 
placed upon this step together. 



A.D.1382.] Good Queen Anne. 285 

Queen Anne 1 s useful and busy life. Shene. 

Queen Anne, after her marriage, lived very 
happily with her husband for twelve years. 
She was devotedly attached to him, and he 
seems sincerely to have loved her. He was 
naturally kind and affectionate in his disposi- 
tion, and, while Anne lived, he yielded himself 
to the good influences which she exerted over 
him. She journeyed with him wherever he 
went, and aided him in the accomplishment of 
all his plans. Whenever he became involved 
in any difficulty, either with his nobles or with 
his subjects, she acted the part of mediator, and 
almost always succeeded in allaying the ani- 
mosity and healing the feud before it proceed- 
ed to extremes. She resided with her husband 
sometimes at one palace and sometimes at an- 
other, but her favorite residence was at the 
palace of Shene, near the present town of Rich- 
mond. 

Although the king was crowned at the time 
of his accession to the throne, he did not fully 
assume the government at that time on account 
of his youth, for you will remember that he was 
then only about eleven years old ; nor did he, 
in fact, come fully into possession of power at 
the time of his marriage, for he was then under 
sixteen. At that time, and for several years 
afterward, his uncles and the other influential 



286 King Kichaed II. 

Grand celebration. The tournament. Knights. 

nobles managed the government in his name. 
At length, however, when he was about twenty- 
one years old, he thought it was time for him 
to assume the direction of affairs himself, and 
he accordingly did so. At this time there was 
another grand celebration, one scarcely inferior 
in pomp and splendor to the coronation itself. 

Among other performances on this occasion 
there was a tournament, in which knights 
mounted on horseback, and armed from head to 
foot with iron armor, fought in the lists, endeav- 
oring to unhorse each other by means of their 
spears. The tournament was held at Smith- 
field. Eaised platforms were set up by the side 
of the lists for the lords and ladies of the court, 
and a beautiful canopy for the queen, who was 
to act as judge of the combat, and was to award 
the prizes. The prizes consisted of a rich jew- 
eled clasp and a splendid crown of gold. 

The queen went first to the ground, and took 
her place with her attendants under her canopy. 
The knights who were to enter the lists then 
came in a grand cavalcade through the streets 
of London to the palace. There were sixty 
iadies mounted on beautiful palfreys, accoutred 
with the new-fashioned side-saddles. Each of 
these ladies conducted a knight, whom she led 
by a silver chain. They were preceded by 



Good Queen Anne. 287 



Magnificence of the king' ^ mode of life. 



minstrels and bands of instrumental music, and 
the streets were thronged with spectators. 

After the tournament there was a grand ban- 
quet at the palace of the Bishop of London, with 
music and dancing, and other such amusements, 
which continued to a late hour of the night. 

For some years after this the king and queen 
lived together in great prosperity. Outwardly 
things went pretty well with the king's affairs, 
and, as he was fond of pomp and display, he 
gradually acquired habits of very profuse and 
lavish expenditure. Indeed, he is said to have 
made it an object of his ambition to surpass, 
in the magnificence of his style of living, all 
the sovereigns of Europe. He kept many sep- 
arate establishments in his different palaces, and 
at all of them gave entertainments and ban- 
quets of immense magnificence and of the most 
luxurious character. It is said that three hund- 
red persons were employed in his kitchens. 

At length, in the year 1394, when Eichard 
was preparing for an expedition into Ireland 
to quell a rebellion which had broken out there, 
the queen was seized with a fatal epidemic which 
was then prevailing in England, and after a 
short illness she died. She was at her palace 
of Shene at this time. The king hastened to 



288 King Eichard II. [A.D.1394. 

Death of Queen Anne. The king inconsolable. The funeral. 

attend her the moment that he heard the tid- 
ings of her illness, and was with her when she 
died. He was inconsolable at the loss of his 
wife, for he had loved her sincerely, and she had 
been a singularly faithful and devoted wife to 
him. He was made almost crazy by her death. 
He imprecated bitter curses on the palace where 
she died, and he ordered it to be destroyed. It 
was, in fact, partially dismantled, in obedience 
to these orders, and Eichard himself never oc- 
cupied it again. It was, however, repaired un- 
der a subsequent reign. 

Eichard gave up, for the time being, his ex- 
pedition into Ireland, being wholly absorbed in 
his sorrow for the irreparable loss he had suf- 
fered. He wrote letters to all the great nobles 
and barons of England to come to the funeral, 
and the obsequies were celebrated with the great- 
est possible pomp and parade. Two months 
were expended in making preparations for the 
funeral. When the day arrived, a very long 
procession was formed to escort the body from 
Shene to Westminster. This procession was 
accompanied by an immense number of torch- 
bearers, all carrying lighted torches in their 
hands. So great was the number of these 
torches, that a large quantity of wax was im- 
ported from Flanders expressly for the purpose. 



A.D.1394.] Good Queen Anne. 289 



Inscription on Queen Anne's tomb. 



The tomb of Anne was not made until a year 
after her death. Richard himself attended to 
all the details connected with the construction 
of it. The inscription was in Latin. The fol- 
lowing is an exact translation of it : 

" Under this stone lies Anne, here c /.tombed, 

Wedded in this world's life to the second Richard. 
To Christ were her meek virtues devoted : 
His poor she freely fed from her treasures ; 
Strife she assuaged, and swelling feuds appeased ; 
Beauteous her form, her face surpassing fair. 
On July's seventh day, thirteen hundred ninety-four, 
All comfort was bereft, for through irremediable sickness 
She passed away into interminable joys." 

By the death of his wife, Richard was left, as 
it were, almost alone in the world. His moth- 
er, the Princess of Wales, had died some time 
before, and Anne had had no children. There 
were his uncles and his cousins, it is true, but 
they were his rivals and competitors rather than 
his friends. Indeed, they were destined soon 
to become his open enemies. 

Richard was afterward married again, to his 
" little wife," as we shall see in a future chap- 
ter. 



290 King Richard II [A.D.1382. 

Jealousy of Richard and his mother against the uncles. 



Chapter XII. 
Incidents of the Eeign. 

IN giving some general account of the char- 
acter of Eichard's reign, and of the incidents 
that occurred during the course of it, we now 
go back a little again, so as to begin at the be- 
ginning of it. 

When Eichard was married, he was, as has 
already been said, only about fifteen or sixteen 
years of age. As he grew older, after this time, 
and began to feel that sense of strength and in- 
dependence which pertains to manhood, he be- 
came more and more jealous of the power and 
influence of his uncles in the government of the 
country. His mother, too, who was still living, 
and who adhered closely to him, was very sus- 
picious of the uncles. She was continually im- 
agining that they were forming plots and con- 
spiracies against her son in favor of themselves 
or of their own children. She was particularly 
suspicious of the Duke of Lancaster, and of his 
son Henry Bolingbroke. It proved in the end 
that there was some reason for this suspicion, 
for this Henry Bolingbroke was the means at 



The Reign. 291 

Plots and manoeuvres. Thomas, Duke of Gloucester. 

last of deposing Richard from his throne in or- 
der to take possession of it himself, as we shall 
see in the sequel. 

In order to prevent, as far as possible, these 
uncles from finding opportunity to accomplish 
any of their supposed designs, Richard and his 
mother excluded them, as much as they could, 
from power, and appointed other persons, who 
had no such claims to the crown, to all the im- 
portant places about the court. This, of course, 
made the uncles very angry. They called the 
men whom Richard thus brought forward his 
favorites, and they hated them exceedingly. 
This state of things led to a great many in- 
trigues, and manoeuvres, and plots, and counter- 
plots, the favorites against the uncles, and the 
uncles against the favorites. These difficulties 
were continued for many years. Parties were 
formed in Parliament, of which sometimes one 
was in the ascendency and sometimes the othei; 
and all was turmoil and confusion. 

When Richard was about twenty years old, 
one of his uncles — his uncle Thomas, at that time 
Duke of Gloucester — gained such an influence 
in Parliament. that some of Richard's favorites 
were deposed from office and imprisoned. The 
duke was imboldened by this success to take a 
farther step. He told the Parliament that the 



292 King Kichard II. 

Province of Parliament. Prerogative of the king. 



government would never be on a good footing 
until they themselves appointed a council to 
manage in the king's name. 

When Richard heard of this plan, he declared 
that he would never submit to it. 

"I am the King of England," said he, "and 
I will govern my realm by means of such of- 
ficers as I choose to appoint myself. I will not 
have others to appoint them for me." 

The ideas which the kings of those days en- 
tertained in respect to the province of Parlia- 
ment was that it was to vote the necessary 
taxes to supply the king's necessities, and also 
to mature the details of all laws for the regula- 
tion of the ordinary business and the social re- 
lations of life, but that the government, strict- 
ly so called — that is, all that relates to the ap- 
pointment and payment of executive officers, 
the making of peace or war, the building and 
equipment of fleets, and the command of armies, 
was exclusively the king's prerogative, and that 
for the exercise of his prerogative in these par- 
ticulars the sovereign was responsible, not to 
his subjects, but to God alone, from whom he 
claimed to have received his crown. 

The people of England, as represented by 
Parliament, have never consented to this view 
of the subject. They have always maintained 



The Reign. 293 



The Commons threaten the king. He is compelled to yield. 

that their kings are, in some sense, responsible 
to the people of the realm, and they have oft- 
en deposed kings, and punished them in other 
ways. 

Accordingly, when Eichard declared that he 
would not submit to the appointment of a coun- 
cil by Parliament, the Commons reminded him 
of the fact that his great-grandfather, Edward 
the Second, had been deposed in consequence 
of having unreasonably and obstinately resisted 
the will of his people, and they hinted to him 
that it would be well for him to beware lest he 
should incur the same fate. Some of the lords, 
too, told him that the excitement was so great 
in the country on account of the mismanage- 
ment of public affairs, and the corruptions and 
malpractice of the favorites, that if he refused 
to allow the council to be appointed, there was 
danger that he would lose his head. 

So Richard was obliged to submit, and the 
council was appointed. Richard was in a great 
rage, and he secretly determined to lay his plans 
for recovering the power into his own hands as 
soon as possible, and punishing the council, and 
all who were concerned in appointing them, for 
their audacity in presuming to encroach in such 
a manner upon his sovereign rights as king. 

The council that was appointed consisted of 



294 King Eichard II. 

Council appointed. Richard 1 s discontent. The court at Nottingham. 

eleven bishops and nobles. Richard's uncle 
Thomas, the Duke of Gloucester, was at the 
head of it. This council governed the country 
for more than a year. Every thing was done 
in Richard's name, it is true, but the real power 
was in the hands of the Duke of Gloucester. 
Richard was very angry and indignant, but he 
did not see what he could do. 

He was, however, all the time forming plans 
and schemes to recover his power. At last, 
after about a year had passed away, he called 
together a number of judges secretly at Not- 
tingham, toward the northern part of the king- 
dom, and submitted to them the question wheth- 
er such a council as the Parliament had appoint- 
ed was legal. It was, of course, understood be- 
forehand how the judges would decide. They 
decreed that the council was illegal; that for 
Parliament to give a council such powers was 
a violation of the king's prerogative, and was 
consequently treason, and that, of course, all 
who had been concerned in the transaction had 
made themselves liable to the penalty of death. 

It was Richard's plan, after having obtained 
this decree, to cause the prominent members of 
the council to be arrested, and he came to Lon- 
don and began to make his preparations for ac- 
complishing this purpose. But as soon as his 



A.D. 1389-1396.] The Keign. 295 

Preparations for war. Fachard and hia party overcome. 

uncle Thomas, the Duke of Gloucester, heard 
of these plans, he, and some great nobles who 
were ready to join with him against the king, 
collected all their forces, and began to march to 
London at the head of forty thousand men. 
Richard's cousin Henry, the Duke of Lancas- 
ter's son, joined them on the way. Richard's 
friends and favorites, on hearing of this, imme- 
diately took arms, and preparations began to 
be made for civil war. In a word, after having 
successfully met and quelled the great insur- 
rection of the serfs and laborers under Wat Ty- 
ler, Richard was now to encounter a still more 
formidable resistance of his authority on the 
part of his uncles and the great barons of the 
realm. These last, indeed, were far more to be 
feared than the others, for they had arms and 
organization, and they enjoyed every possible 
facility for carrying on a vigorous and determ- 
ined war. Richard and his party soon found 
that it was useless to attempt to resist them. 
Accordingly, after a very brief struggle, the 
royal party was entirely put down. Richard's 
favorites were arrested. Some of them were 
beheaded, others were banished from the realm, 
and the government of the country fell again 
into the hands of the uncles. 

One of Richard's favorites who was executed 



296 King Richard II [A.D. 1389-1396. 

Execution of Burley. Queen Anne' s fruitless intercession. 

on this occasion was a man whose untimely 
death grieved and afflicted both Richard and 
the queen very much indeed. His name was 
Sir Simon Burley. He had been Richard's 
friend and companion all his life. Richard's 
father, Edward, the Black Prince, had appoint- 
ed Sir Simon Richard's tutor while Richard 
himself was a mere child, and he had been with 
him ever since that time. Queen Anne was 
much attached to him, and she was particularly 
grateful to him on account of his having been 
the commissioner who negotiated and arranged 
her marriage with Richard. Richard made 
every possible exertion to save his tutor's life, 
but his uncle Gloucester was inexorable. He 
told Richard that his keeping the crown de- 
pended on the immediate execution of the trai- 
tor. Queen Anne fell on her knees before him, 
and begged and entreated that Sir Simon might 
be spared, but all was of no avail. 

So Richard was compelled to submit ; but he 
did not do so without secret muttering, and res- 
olutions of revenge. He allowed the govern- 
ment to remain in his uncle's hands for some 
time, but at length, about a year afterward, he 
found himself strong enough to seize it again. 
The plea which his uncles had hitherto made 
for managing the government themselves was, 



The Reign. 297 



The king determines to resume his power. 



that Richard was not jet of age. But now he 
became of age, and he resolved on what might 
be called a coup d'etat, to get possession of the 
government. He planned this measure in con- 
cert with a number of his own friends and fa- 
vorites, who hoped, by this means, that they 
themselves should rise to power. 

He called a grand council of all the nobles 
and great officers of state. The assembly con- 
vened in the great council-chamber, and waited 
there for the king to come in. 

At length the king arrived, and, walking into 
the chamber, he took his seat upon the throne. 
A moment afterward he turned to one of the 
chief officers present and addressed him, saying, 

"My lord, what is my age at the present 
time?" 

The nobleman answered that his majesty was 
now over twenty years of age. 

" Then," said the king, speaking in a very 
firm and determined manner, " I am of years 
sufficient to govern mine own house and family, 
and also my kingdom ; for it seemeth against 
reason that the state of the meanest person in 
my kingdom should be better than mine. Ev- 
ery heir throughout the land that has once come 
to the age of twenty years is permitted, if his 
father be not living, to order his business him- 



298 King Kichard II. 

His interview with his council. Surprise of the barons. 

self. And that which is permitted -by law to 
every other person, of however mean degree, 
why is it denied to me?" 

The king spoke these words with an air of 
such courage and determination that the barons 
were astonished. The foremost of them, after 
a brief pause, seemed ready to accede to his 
proposals. They said that there should hence- 
forth be no right abridged from him, but that 
he might take upon himself the government 
if he chose, as it was now manifestly his duty 
to do. 

"Very well," said the king. "You know 
that I have been a long time ruled by tutors 
and governors, so that it has not been lawful 
for me to do any thing, no matter of how small 
importance, without their consent. Now, there- 
fore, I desire that henceforth they meddle no 
more with matters pertaining to my govern- 
ment, for I will attend to them myself, and aft- 
er the manner of an heir arrived at full age. I 
will call whom I please to be my counsel, and 
thus manage my own affairs according to my 
own will and pleasure." 

The barons were extremely surprised to hear 
these determinations thus resolutely announced 
by the king, but had nothing to say in reply. 

" And m the first place/' continued Kichard, 



The Reign. 290 



fhe great seal. Richard appoints a new chancellor. 

" I wish the chancellor to give me up the great 
seal." 

The great seal was a very important badge 
and emblem of the royal prerogative. No de- 
cree was of legal authority until an impress 
from this seal was attached to it. The officer 
who had charge of it was called the chancellor. 
A new seal was prepared for each sovereign on 
his accession to the throne. The devices were 
much the same in all. They consisted of a rep- 
resentation of the king seated on his throne upon 
one side of the seal, and on the other mount- 
ed on horseback and going into battle, armed 
from head to foot. The legends or inscriptions 
around the border were changed, of course, for 
each reign. 

The engraving on the following page repre- 
sents one side of king Richard's seal. The oth- 
er side contained an image of the king seated 
on his throne, and surrounded by various insig- 
nia of royalty. 

"I wish the chancellor," said the king, "to 
deliver me up the great seal." 

So the nobleman who had been chancellor up 
to that time delivered the seal into the hands 
of the king. The seal was kept in a beautiful 
box, richly ornamented. It was always brought 
to the council by the lord chancellor, who had 



300 King Richard II. 



Richard appoints new officers of government. 




SEAL OF RICHARD II. 



it in charge. The king proceeded immediately 
afterward to appoint a new chancellor, and to 
place the box in his hands. In the same sum- 
mary manner the king displaced almost all the 
other high officers of state, and appointed new 
ones of his own instead of them. The former 
officers were obliged to submit, though sorely 
against their will. They were powerless, for the 
king had now attained such an age that there 
was no longer any excuse for withholding from 
him the complete possession of his kingdom. 



The Reign. 801 

The wars in which Richard was engaged. 

From this time, accordingly, Richard was ac- 
tually as well as nominally king of England ; 
but still he was often engaged in contentions 
and quarrels with his uncles, and with the oth- 
er great nobles who took his uncle's part. 

The queen — for good Queen Anne was at 
this time still living — was so gentle and kind, 
and she acted her part as peacemaker so well, 
that she greatly softened and soothed these as- 
perities ; but Richard led, nevertheless, a wild 
and turbulent life, and was continually getting 
involved in the most serious difficulties. Then 
there were wars to be carried on, sometimes with 
France, sometimes with Scotland, and sometimes 
with Ireland. Richard's uncles, the Dukes of 
Lancaster and Gloucester, generally went away 
in command of the armies to carry on these 
wars. Sometimes Richard himself accompanied 
the expeditions; but even on these occasions, 
when he and his knights and nobles were en- 
gaged together in a common cause, and ap- 
parently at peace with each other, there were 
so many jealousies and angry heartburnings 
among them, that deadly quarrels and feuds 
were continually breaking out. 

As an example of these quarrels, I will give 
an account of one which took place not very 
long after Richard was married. He was en- 



302 King Richard II [A.D. 1389-1396. 

Story of Sir Miles, the Bohemian knight. 

gaged with his uncles in an expedition to Scot* 
land. There was a knight in attendance upon 
him named Sir Miles. This knight was a friend 
of the queen. He was a Bohemian, and had 
come from Bohemia to pay Anne a visit, and 
to bring the news to her from her native land. 
The king, out of affection to Anne, paid him 
great attention. This made the English knights 
and nobles jealous, and they amused themselves 
with mimicking and laughing at Sir Miles's for- 
eign peculiarities. The particular friends of 
the queen, however, took his part, one especial- 
ly, named the Earl of Stafford, and his son, the 
young Lord Ralph Stafford. Lord Ralph Staf- 
ford was one of the most courteous and popular 
knights in England. 

In the course of the expedition to Scotland 
the party came to a town called Beverley, which 
is situated in the northern part of England, near 
the frontier. One day, two archers belonging 
to the service of Lord Ralph Stafford, in rid- 
ing across the fields near Beverley, found two 
squires engaged in a sort of quarrel with Sir 
Miles. The cause of the quarrel was something 
about his lodgings in the town. The squires, 
it seems, knowing that the knights and nobles 
generally disliked Sir Miles, were encouraged 
to be very bold and insolent to him in express- 



The Reign. 303 



The archers and the squires. A squire killed. 

ing their ill-will, and when the archers came 
up they were following him with taunts, and 
ridicule, and abuse, while Sir Miles was making 
the best of his way toward the town. 

The archers took the Bohemian's part. They 
remonstrated with the squires for thus abusing 
and teasing a stranger and a foreigner, a per- 
sonal friend, too, and guest of the queen. 

" What business is it of yours, villainous 
knave, whether we laugh at him or not ?" said 
the squires. " "What right have you to inter- 
meddle ? What is it to you ?" 

" What is it to us ?" repeated one of the arch- 
ers. "It is a great deal to us. This man is 
the friend of our master, and we will not stand 
by and see him abused." 

Upon hearing this, one of the squires uttered 
some words of defiance, and advanced as if to 
strike the archer ; but the archer, having his 
bow and arrow all ready, suddenly let the ar- 
row fly, and the squire was killed on the spot. 

Sir Miles had already gone on toward the 
town. The other squire, seeing his companion 
dead, immediately made his escape. The two 
archers, leaving the man whom they had killed 
on the ground where he had fallen, made the 
best of their way home, and told their master, 
Sir Ealph Stafford, what they had done. 



304 King Bichaed II. 

Sir Ralph Stafford is displeased and alarmed. 

Sir Kalph was extremely concerned to hear 
of the occurrence, and he told the archer who 
killed the squire that he had done very wrong. 

" But, my lord," said the archer, " I could not 
have done otherwise ; for the man was coming 
up to us with his sword drawn in his hand, and 
we were obliged either to kill him or to be kill- 
ed ourselves." 

The archers, moreover, told Sir Ealph that 
the squires were in the service of Sir John Hol- 
land. Now Sir John Holland was a half broth- 
er of the king, being the child of his mother, 
the Princess of Wales, by a former husband. 
When Sir Kalph heard this, he was still more 
alarmed than before. He told the archers who 
killed the squire that they must go and hide 
themselves somewhere until the affair could be 
arranged. 

" I will negotiate with Lord Holland for your 
pardon," said he, " either through my father or 
in some other way. But, in the mean time, 
you must keep yourselves closely concealed." 

The Earl of Stafford, Lord Ealph Stafford's 
father, was a nobleman of the very highest rank, 
and of great influence. 

It is a curious indication of the ideas that pre- 
vailed in those days, and of the relations that 
subsisted between the nobles and their depend- 



The Reign. 305 

Lord Holland is enraged. He meets 1 ord Stafford in a narrow lane. 

ants, that the slaughter of a man in an affray 
of this kind was a matter to be arranged be- 
tween the masters respectively of the men en- 
gaged in it. 

The archers went away to hide themselves 
until Lord Ralph could arrange the matter. 

In the mean time, the squire who had escaped 
in the fray hurried home and related the mat- 
ter to Lord Holland. Lord Holland was great- 
ly enraged. He uttered dreadful imprecations 
against Lord Ralph Stafford and against Sir 
Miles, whom he seemed to consider responsible 
for the death of his squire, and declared that he 
would not sleep until he had had his revenge. 
So he mounted his horse, and, taking some 
trusty attendants with him, rode into Bever- 
ley, and asked where Sir Miles's lodgings were. 
While he was going toward the place, breath- 
ing fury and death, suddenly, in a narrow lane, 
he came upon Lord Ralph, who was then going 
to find him, in order to arrange about the mur- 
der. It was now, however, late in the evening, 
and so dark that the parties did not at first 
know each other. 

"Who comes here?" said Lord Holland, when 
he saw Sir Ralph approaching. 

"I am Stafford," replied Sir Ralph. 

"You are the very man I want to see," said 

U 



306 King Bichaed II 

Stafford is killed. Lord Holland's unconcern. 

Lord Holland. " One of jour servants has kill- 
ed my squire — the one that I loved so much." 

As he said this, he brought down so heavy a 
blow upon Sir Ealph's head as to fell him from 
his horse to the ground. He then rode on. 
The attendants hurried to the spot and raised 
Sir Ealph up. They found him faint and bleed- 
ing, and in a few moments he died. 

As soon as this fact was ascertained, one of 
the men rode on after Lord Holland, and, com 
ing up to him, said, 

■■ My lord, you have killed Lord Stafford." 

" Very well," said Lord Holland ; " I am 
glad of it. I would rather it would be a man 
of his rank than any body else, for so I am the 
more completely revenged for the death of my 
squire." 

As fast as the tidings of these events spread, 
they produced universal excitement. The Earl 
of Stafford, the father of Sir Ralph, was plunged 
into the most inconsolable grief at the death of 
his son. The earl was one of the most power- 
ful nobles in the army, and, if he had under- 
taken to avenge himself on Lord Holland, the 
whole expedition would perhaps have been 
broken up into confusion. On the king's sol- 
emn assurance that Holland would be punish- 
ed, he was appeased for the time ; but then the 



The Reign. 307 



Richard's perplexity and distress. His mother's anguish. 

Princess of Wales, Richard's mother, who was 
Lord Holland's mother too, was thrown into the 
greatest state of anxiety and distress. She im- 
plored Richard to save his brother's life. All 
the other nobles and knights took sides too in 
the quarrel, and for a time it seemed that the 
dissension would never be healed. Lord Hol- 
land, in the mean while, fled to the church at 
Beverley, and took sanctuary there. By the 
laws and customs of the time, they could not 
touch him until he came voluntarily out. 

Richard resisted all the entreaties of his moth- 
er to spare the murderer's life until he found 
that her anxiety and distress were preying upon 
her health so much that he feared that she 
would die. At last, to save his mother's life, 
he promised that Holland should be spared. 
But it was too late. His mother fell into a de- 
cline, and at length died, as it was said, of a 
broken heart. What a dreadful death ! that 
of a mother worn out by the agony of long-con- 
tinued and apparently fruitless efforts to pre- 
vent one of her children from being the execu- 
tioner of another for the crime of murder. 

Besides these fierce, deadly contests among 
the knights and nobles, the ladies of the court 
had their feuds and quarrels too. They were 
often divided into cliques and parties, and were 



308 King Kichabd II. 

Extraordinary marriage of the Duke of Lancaster. 

full of envyings, jealousies, and resentments 
against each other. One of the most serious of 
these difficulties was occasioned bj a marriage 
of the Duke of Lancaster, which took place to- 
ward the close of his life. This was his third 
marriage, he having been successively married 
to two ladies of high rank before. The lady 
whom he now married was of a comparatively 
humble station in life. She was the daughter 
of a foreign knight. Her name, originally, was 
Catharine de Eouet. She had been, in her ear- 
ly life, a maiden in attendance on the Duchess 
of Lancaster, the duke's second wife. While 
she was in his family the duke formed a guilty 
intimacy with her, which was continued for a 
long time. They had three children. The 
duke provided well for these children, and gave 
them a good education. After a time, the duke, 
becoming tired of her, arranged for her to be 
married to a certain knight named Swinton, 
and she lived with this knight for some time, 
until at length he died, and Catharine became a 
widow. 

The Duchess of Lancaster died also, and then 
the duke became for the second time a widow- 
er, and he now conceived the idea of making 
Catharine Swinton his wife. His motive for 
this was not his love for her, for that, it is said, 



The Reign. 309 

Indignation anil rage of the ladies of the court. 



had passed away, but his regard for the chil- 
dren, who, on the marriage of their mother to 
the father of the children, would be legitima- 
tized, and would thus become entitled to many 
legal rights and privileges from which they 
would otherwise be debarred. The other la- 
dies of the court, however, particularly the 
wives of the other dukes — the Duke of Lan- 
caster's brothers — were greatly incensed when 
they heard of this proposed marriage, and they 
did all they possibly could do to prevent it. 
All was, however, of no avail, for the Duke of 
Lancaster was not a man to be easily thwarted 
in any determination that he might take into 
his head. So he was married, and the poor de- 
spised Catharine was made the first duchess in 
the realm, and became entitled to take prece- 
dence of all the other duchesses. 

This the other duchesses could not endure. 
They could not bear it, they said, and they 
would not bear it. They declared that they 
would not go into any place where this woman, 
as they called her, was to be. As might have 
been expected, an interminable amount of quar- 
reling and ill-will grew out of this affair. 

About the time of this marriage of the duke, 
the king himself was married a second time, as 
will be related in the next chapter. 



810 King Richard II [A.D.1895. 

Some account of Isabella of France, the little queen. 



Chapter XIIL 
The Little Queen. 

KING RICHARD'S second wife was called 
the little queen, because she was so young 
and small when she was married. She was 
only about nine years old at- that time. The 
story of this case will show a little how the 
marriages of kings and princesses in those days 
were managed. 

It was not long after the death of good Queen 
Anne before some of Richard's courtiers and 
counselors began to advise him to be married 
again. He replied, as men always do in such 
cases, that he did not know where to find a 
wife. The choice was indeed not very large, 
being restricted by etiquette to the royal fami- 
lies of England and of the neighboring coun- 
tries. Several princesses were proposed one 
after another, but Richard did not seem to like 
any of them. Among other ladies, one of his 
cousins was proposed to him, a daughter of the 
Duke of Gloucester. But Richard said no; 
she was too nearly related to him. 

At last he took it into his head that he should 



A.D.1395.] The Little Queen. 311 

Richard opens negotiations with the King of France. 

like to marry little Isabella, the Princess of 
France, then about nine years old. The idea 
of his being married to Isabella was calculated 
to surprise people for two reasons : first, be- 
cause Isabella was so small, and, secondly, be- 
cause the King of France, her father, was Bich- 
ard's greatest and most implacable enemy. 
France and England had been on bad terms 
with each other not only during the whole of 
Eichard's reign, but through a great number of 
reigns preceding; and now, just before the 
period when this marriage was proposed, the 
two nations had been engaged in a long and 
sanguinary war. But Richard said that he was 
going to make peace, and that this marriage was 
to be the means of confirming it. 

"But she is altogether too young for your 
majesty," said Eichard's counselors. " She is 
a mere child." 

"True," said the king; "but that is an ob- 
jection which will grow less and less every 
year. Besides, I am in no haste. I am young 
enough myself to wait till she grows up, and, in 
the mean time, I can have her trained and edu- 
cated to suit me exactly." 

So, after a great deal of debate among the 
king's counselors and in Parliament, it was 
finally decided to send a grand embassage to 



312 King Kichard II [A.D.1395. 

A grand embassage sent to France. Their reception. 

Paris to propose to the King of France that he 
should give his little daughter Isabella in mar- 
riage to Eichard, King of England. 

This embassage consisted of an archbishop, 
two earls, and twenty knights, attended each by 
two squires, making forty squires in all, and 
five hundred horsemen. The party proceeded 
from London to Dover, then crossed to Calais, 
which was at this time an English possession, 
and thence proceeded to Paris. 

When they arrived at Paris they entered the 
city with great pomp and parade, being received 
with great honor by the French king, and they 
were lodged sumptuously in quarters provided 
for them. 

The embassadors were also very honorably 
received at court. The king invited them to 
dine with him, and entertained them handsome- 
ly, but many objections were made to the pro- 
posed marriage. 

" How can we," said the French counselors, 
"give a Princess of France in marriage to our 
worst and bitterest enemy ?" 

To this the embassadors replied that the mar- 
riage would establish and confirm a permanent 
peace between the two countries. 

Then there was another objection. Isabella 
was already engaged. She had been betrothed 



The Little Queen. 313 

Interview of the embassadors with little Isabella. 

some time before to the son of a duke of one of 
the neighboring countries. But the embassa- 
dors said that they thought this could be ar- 
ranged. 

"While these negotiations were going on, the 
embassadors asked permission to see the prin- 
cess. This at first the king and queen, Isabel- 
la's father and mother, declined. They said 
that she was only eight or nine years old, and 
that such a child would not know at all how to 
conduct at such an interview. 

However, the interview was granted at last. 
The embassadors were conducted to an apart- 
ment in the palace of the Louvre, where the 
princess and her parents were ready to receive 
them. On coming into the presence of the 
child, the chief embassador advanced to her, 
and, kneeling down before her, he said, 

14 Madam, if it please God, you shall be our 
lady and queen." 

The princess looked at him attentively while 
he said this. She was a very beautiful child, 
with a gentle and thoughtful expression of coun- 
tenance, and large dark eyes, full of meaning. 

She replied to the embassador of her own ac- 
cord in a clear, childish voice, 

44 Sir, if it please God and my lord and fa- 
ther that I be Queen of England, I should be 



314 King Richakd II. 

The negotiations go on satisfactorily. 

well pleased, for I have been told that there I 
shall be a great lady." 

Isabella then took the kneeling embassador 
by the hand and lifted him up. She then led 
him to her mother. 

The embassadors were extremely pleased 
with the appearance and behavior of the prin- 
cess, and were more than ever desirous of suc- 
ceeding in their mission. But, after some far- 
ther negotiations, they received for their answer 
that the French court were disposed to enter- 
tain favorably the proposal which Richard made, 
but that nothing could be determined upon the 
subject at that time. 

"We must wait," said the king, "until we 
can see what arrangement can be made in re- 
gard to the princess's present engagement, and 
then, if King Richard will send to us again, 
next spring we will give a final answer." 

So slow are the movements and operations 
in such a case as this among the great, that the 
embassadors were occupied three weeks in Paris 
in advancing the business to this point. They 
were, however, well satisfied with what they 
had done, and at length took their leave, and 
returned, to London in high spirits with their 
success, and reported the result to King Rich' 
ard. He himself was well satisfied too. 



A.D.1396.] The Little Queen. 315 

The marriage ceremony is performed by proxy. 

The negotiations went on prosperously dur- 
ing the winter, and in the spring another em- 
bassage was sent, larger than the preceding. 
The attendants of this embassage were several 
thousand in number, and they occupied a whole 
street in Paris when they arrived there. By 
this embassage the arrangement of the marriage 
was finally concluded. The ceremony was in 
fact performed, for Isabella was actually mar- 
ried to Eichard, by proxy as it is called, a cus- 
tomary mode of conducting marriages between 
a princess and a king. One of the embassadors, 
a grand officer of state, personated King Eich- 
ard on this occasion, and the marriage was cel- 
ebrated with the greatest possible pomp and 
splendor. 

Besides the marriage contracts, there were va- 
rious other treaties and covenants to be drawn 
up, and signed and sealed. All this business 
required so much time, that this embassage, like 
the other, remained three weeks in Paris, and 
then they returned home to London, and re- 
ported to Eichard what they had done. 

Still the affair was not yet fully settled. A 
great many of the nobles and the people of En- 
gland very strenuously opposed the match, for 
they wished the war with France to be contin- 
ued. This was particularly the case with Eich- 



816 - King Eichard II. 

Richard makes arrangements to go and receive his bride. 

ard's uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. He had 
greatly distinguished himself in the war thus 
far, and he wished it to be continued ; so he 
did all he could to oppose the consummation of 
the marriage, and the negotiations and delays 
were long protracted. Eichard, however, per- 
severed, and at length the obstacles were so far 
removed, that in the fall of 1396 he began to 
organize a grand expedition to go with him to 
the frontiers of France to receive his bride. 

Immense preparations were made on both 
sides for the ceremonial of this visit. The meet- 
ing was to take place on the frontier, since 
neither sovereign dared to trust himself within 
the dominions of the other, for fear of treach- 
ery. For the. same reason, each one deemed it 
necessary to take with him a very large armed 
force. Great stores of provisions for the ex- 
pedition were accordingly prepared, and sent 
on beforehand; portions being sent down the 
Thames from London, and the rest being pur- 
chased in Flanders and other countries on the 
Continent, and forwarded to Calais by water. 
The King of France also, for the use of his 
party, sent stores from Paris to all the towns in 
the neighborhood of the frontier. 

Among the ladies of the court on both sides 
there was universal emulation and excitement 



A.D.1396.] The Little Queen. 317 

Grand preparations for the expedition. 



in respect to plans and preparations which they 
had to make for the wedding. Great numbers 
of them were to accompany the expedition, and 
nothing was talked of but the dresses and dec- 
orations which they should wear, and the parts 
that they should respectively perform in the 
grand parade. Hundreds of armorers, and 
smiths, and other artisans were employed in 
repairing and embellishing the armor of the 
knights and barons, and in designing and exe- 
cuting new banners, and new caparisons for the 
horses, richer and more splendid than were ever 
known before. 

There was a great deal of heartburning and 
ill-will in respect to the Duke of Lancaster's 
new wife, with whom the other ladies of the 
court had declared they would not associate on 
any terms. The king was determined that she 
should go on the expedition, and the other la- 
dies consequently found themselves obliged 
either to submit to her presence, or forego the 
grandest display which they would ever have 
the opportunity to witness as long as they 
should live. They concluded to submit, though 
they did it with great reluctance and with a 
very ill grace. 

At length every thing was ready, and the ex- 
pedition, leaving London, journeyed to Dover, 



318 King Kichard II. [A.D.1396. 

The meeting on the Trench frontier. The pavilions. 

and then crossed the Straits to Calais. A long 
time was then consumed in negotiations in re- 
spect to the peace ; for, although Eichard him- 
self was willing to make peace on almost any 
terms, so that he might obtain his little bride, 
his uncles and the other leading nobles made 
great difficulties, and it was a long time before 
the treaties could be arranged. At length, how- 
ever, every thing was settled, and the prepara- 
tions were made for delivering to Eichard his 
bride. 

Two magnificent pavilions were erected near 
the frontier, one on the French and the other 
on the English side. These pavilions were for 
the use of the two monarchs respectively, and 
of their lords and nobles. Then, in the centre, 
between these, and, of course, exactly upon the 
frontier, a third and more open pavilion was set 
up. In this central pavilion the two kings 
were to have their first meeting. For either of 
the kings to have entered first into the domin- 
ions of the other would have been, in some 
sense, an acknowledgment of inferiority on his 
part. So it was contrived that neither should 
first visit the other, but that they should ad 
vance together, each from his own pavilion, 
and meet in the central one, after which they 
could visit each other as it might be convenient. 



The Little Queen. 319 

Precautions to guard against violence or treachery. 

The first interview therefore took place in the 
centre pavilion. It was necessary, however, to 
take some strong precautions against treachery. 
Accordingly, before the meeting, an oath wag 
administered to both monarchs, by which each 
one solemnly asseverated that he was acting m 
good faith in this transaction, and that he had 
no secret reservation or treachery in his heart, 
and pledged his sacred honor that the other 
should suffer no violence, damage, molestation, 
arrest, constraint, or any other inconvenience 
whatever during the interview. 

As an additional precaution, a strong force, 
consisting of four hundred knights on each side, 
all fully armed, were drawn up on opposite sides 
of the central pavilion, the English troops on 
the English side, and the French on the French 
side.* These troops were arranged in such a 
manner that the King of England should pass 
between the ranks of the English knights in 
going to the pavilion, and the French king be- 
tween the French knights. 

Things being thus arranged, at the appointed 
hour the two kings set out together from their 
own pavilions, and walked, accompanied each 

* Besides these knights, each of the kings had a strong 
force stationed in reserve, at a little distance from their re- 
spective pavilions, to be ready in case of any difficulty. 



820 King Richard II 

Ceremonious interviews. Grand entertainment 

by a number of dukes and nobles of high rank, 
to the central pavilion. Here the kings, both 
being uncovered, approached each other. They 
saluted each other in a very friendly manner, 
and held a brief conversation together. Some 
of the accounts say that the French king, then 
taking the English king by the hand, led him 
to the French tent, the French dukes who had 
accompanied him following with the English 
dukes who had accompanied Eichard, and that 
there the whole party partook of refreshment. 

However this may be, the first interview 
was one mainly of ceremony. Afterward there 
were other interviews in the different pavilions. 
These alternating visits were continued for sev- 
eral days, until at length the time was appoint- 
ed for a final meeting, at which the little queen 
was to be delivered into her husband's hands. 

This final grand ceremony took place in the 
French pavilion. The order of proceeding was 
as follows. First there was a grand entertain- 
ment. The table was splendidly laid out, and 
there was a sideboard loaded with costly plate. 
At the table the kings were waited upon by 
dukes. During the dinner, Richard talked with 
the King of France about his wife, and about 
the peace which was now so happily confirmed 
and established between the two countries. 



The Little QuEEtf. 321 

Richard receives bis bride. The palanquin. 

After dinner the cloth was removed and the 
tables were taken away. When the pavilion 
was cleared a door was opened, and a party of 
ladies of the French court, headed by the queen, 
came in, conducting the little princess. As soon 
as she had entered, the King of France took her 
b}^ the hand and led her to Eichard. Eichard 
received her with a warm welcome, and, lifting 
her up in his arms, kissed her. He told the 
King of France that he was fully sensible of the 
value of such a gift, and that he received it as 
a pledge of perpetual amity and peace between 
the two countries. He also, as had been pre- 
viously agreed upon, solemnly renounced all 
claim to the throne of France on account of 
Isabella or her descendants, forever. 

He then immediately committed the princess 
to the hands of the Duchess of Lancaster and 
the other ladies, and they at once conveyed her 
to the door of the tent. Here there was a sort 
of palanquin, magnificently made and adorned, 
waiting to receive her. The princess was put 
into this palanquin, and immediately set out 
for Calais. Eichard and the immense train of 
knights and nobles followed, and thus, at a very 
rapid pace, the whole party returned to Calais. 

A few days after this the marriage ceremony 
was performed anew between Eichard and Isa- 

X 



322 Kikg Richard II [A.B.1396. 

Excitement in London. Reception of the little queen. 

bella, Richard himself being personally present 
this time. Great was the parade and great the 
rejoicing on this occasion. After the marriage, 
the little queen was again put under the charge 
of the Duchess of lancaster and the other En- 
glish ladies who had been appointed to receive 
her. 

In the mean time, all London was becoming 
every day more and more excited in expecta- 
tion of the arrival of the bridal party there. 
Great preparations were made for receiving 
them. At length, about a fortnight after tak- 
ing leave of her father, Isabella arrived in Lon- 
don. She spent the first night at the Tower, 
and on the following day passed through Lon- 
don to "Westminster in a grand procession. An 
immense concourse of people assembled on the 
occasion. Indeed, such was the eagerness of 
the people to see the queen on her arrival in 
London, that there were nine persons crushed 
to death by the crowd on London Bridge when 
she was passing over it. 

The queen took up her residence at Windsor 
Cas le, where she was under the charge of the 
Du.hess of Lancaster and other ladies, who were 
to superintend her education. King Richard 
used to come and visit her very often, and on 
such occasions she was excused from her stud- 



A.D.1396.] The Little Queen. 323 

The little queen's mode of life in England. 

ies, and so she was always glad to see him; 
besides, he used to talk with her and play with 
her in a very friendly and affectionate manner. 
He was now about thirty years old, and she 
was ten. He, however, liked her very much, 
for she was very beautiful, and very amiable 
and affectionate in her manners. She liked to 
have Kichard come and see her too, for his vis- 
its not only released her for the time from her 
studies, but he was very gentle and kind to her, 
and he used to play to her on musical instru- 
ments, and sing to her, and amuse her in vari- 
ous other ways. She admired, moreover, the 
splendor of his dress, for he always came in 
very magnificent apparel. 

In a word, Kichard and his little queen, not- 
withstanding the disparity of their years, were 
both very well pleased with the match which 
they had made. Richard was proud of the 
youth and beauty of his wife, and Isabella was 
proud of the greatness, power, and glory of her 
husband. 



324 King Richard II. [A.D.1397. 

Difficulties of Richard's position. His rivals. 



Chapter XIY. 
Hichard's Deposition and Death. 

IT was not long after Richard's marriage to 
the little queen before the troubles and dif- 
ficulties in which his government was involved 
increased in a very alarming degree. The feuds 
among his uncles, and between his uncles and 
himself, increased in frequency and bitterness, 
and many plots and counterplots were formed 
in respect to the succession ; for Isabella being 
so young, it was very doubtful whether she 
would grow up and have children, and, unless 
she did sp, some one or other of Richard's cous- 
ins would be heir to the crown. I have spoken 
of his cousin Henry of Bolingbroke as the prin- 
cipal of these claimants. There was, however, 
another one, Roger, the Earl of March. Roger 
was the grandson of Richard's uncle Lionel, who 
had died long before. The Duke of Glouces- 
ter, who had been so bitterly opposed to Rich- 
ard's marriage with Isabella, and had, as it seem- 
ed, now become his implacable enemy, conceiv- 
ed the plan of deposing Richard and making 
Roger king. Isabella, if this plan had been car- 



A.D.1397.] The Deposition. 325 

Plot discovered. Kichard arrests his uncle Gloucester. 



ried into effect, was to have been shut up in a 
prison for all the rest of her days. There were 
several great nobles joined with the Duke of 
Gloucester in this conspiracy. 

The plot was betrayed to Richard by some 
of the confederates. Richard immediately de- 
termined to arrest his uncle and bring him to 
trial. It was necessary, however, to do this se- 
cretly, before any of the conspirators should be 
put upon their guard. So he set off one night 
from his palace in Westminster, with a consid- 
erable company of armed men, to go to the 
duke's palace, which was at some distance from 
London, planning his journey so as to arrive 
there very early in the morning. The people 
of London, when they saw the king passing at 
that late hour, wondered where he was going. 

He arrived very early the next morning at 
the duke's castle. He sent some of his men for- 
ward into the court of the castle to ask if the 
duke were at home. The servants said that 
he was at home, but he was not yet up. So 
the messengers sent up to him in his bed-cham- 
ber to inform him that the king was below, and 
to ask him to come down and receive him. 
Gloucester accordingly came down. He was 
much surprised, but he knew that it would be 
very unwise for him to show any suspicion, and 



326 King Richard II [A.D.1397. 

Extraordinary circumstances of the arrest. 

so, after welcoming the king, he asked what 
was the object of so early a visit. The king 
assumed a gay and unconcerned air, as if he 
were out upon some party of pleasure, and said 
he wished the duke to go away with him a 
short distance. So the duke dressed himself 
and mounted his horse, the king, in the mean 
time, talking in a merry way with the ladies of 
the castle who had come down into the court 
to receive him. When they were ready the 
whole party rode out of the court, and then the 
king, suddenly changing his tone, ordered his 
men to arrest the duke and take him away. 

The duke was never again seen or heard of 
in England, and for a long time it was not 
known what had become of him. It was, how- 
ever, at last said, and generally believed, that 
he was put on board a ship, and sent secretly 
to Calais, and shut up in a castle there, and was, 
after a time, strangled by means of feather beds, 
or, as others say, by wet towels put over his 
face, in obedience to orders sent to the castle 
by Richard. Several other great noblemen, 
whom Richard supposed to be confederates with 
Gloucester, were arrested by similar stratagems. 
Two or three of the most powerful of them were 
brought to a trial before judges in Richard's in- 
terest, and, being condemned, were beheaded. 



The Deposition. 327 

Richard becomes extremely unpopular. His excesses. 

It is supposed that Richard did not dare to 
bring Gloucester himself to trial, on account of 
the great popularity and vast influence which 
he enjoyed among the people of England. 

Richard was very much pleased with the suc- 
cess of his measures for thus putting the most 
formidable of his enemies out of the way, and 
not long after this his cousin Roger died, so 
that Richard was henceforth relieved of all spe- 
cial apprehension on his account. But the 
country was extremely dissatisfied. The Duke 
of Gloucester had been very much respected 
and beloved by the nation. Richard was hated. 
His government was tyrannical. His style of 
living was so extravagant that his expenses 
were enormous, and the people were taxed be- 
yond endurance to raise the money required. 
While, however, he thus spared no expense to 
secure his own personal aggrandizement and 
glory, it was generally believed that he cared 
little for the substantial interests of the coun- 
try, but was ready to sacrifice them at any time 
to promote his own selfish ends. 

In the mean time, having killed the princi- 
pal leaders opposed to him, for a time he had 
every thing his own way. He obtained the 
control of Parliament, and caused the most un- 
just and iniquitous laws to be passed, the ob- 



328 King Eichaed II. 

Kemorse. His fear of Henry Bolingbroke. 

ject of which was to supply him more and more 
fully with money, and to increase still more his 
own personal power. He went on in this way 
until the country was almost ripe for rebellion. 

Still, with all his wealth and splendor, Rich- 
ard was not happy. He was harassed by per- 
petual suspicions and anxieties, and his con- 
science tortured him with reproaches for the 
executions which he had procured of his uncle 
Gloucester and the other noblemen, particular- 
ly the Earl of Arundel, one of the most power- 
ful and wealthy nobles of England. He used 
to awake from his sleep at night in horror, cry- 
ing out that the blood of the earl was all over 
his bed. 

He was afraid continually of his cousin Hen- 
ry, who was now in the direct line of succession 
to the crown, and whom he imagined to be con- 
spiring against him. He wished very much to 
find some means of removing him out of the 
way. An opportunity at length presented it- 
self. There was a quarrel between Henry and 
a certain nobleman named Norfolk. Each ac- 
cused the other of treasonable designs. There 
was a long difficulty about it, and several plans 
were formed for a trial of the case. At last it 
was determined that there should be a trial by 
single combat between the parties, to determ- 



The Deposition. 329 

Coventry. Preparation for the combat. The combat arrested. 

me the question which of them was the true 
man. 

The town of Coventry, which is in the cen- 
tral part of England, was appointed for this 
combat. The lists were prepared, a pavilion 
for the use of the king and those who were to 
act as judges was erected, and an immense con- 
course of spectators assembled to witness the 
contest. All the preliminary ceremonies were 
performed, as usual in those days in personal 
combats of this character, except that in this 
case the combatants were to fight on horseback. 
They came into the lists with horses magnifi- 
cently caparisoned. Norfolk's horse was cov- 
ered with crimson velvet, and the trappings of 
Henry's were equally splendid. When all was 
ready, the signal was given, and the battle com- 
menced. After the combatants had made a few 
passes at each other without effect, the king 
made a signal, and the heralds cried out, Ho ! 
Ho ! which was an order for them to stop. The 
king then directed that their arms should be 
taken from them, and that they should dis- 
mount, and take their places in certain chairs 
which had been provided for them within the 
lists. These chairs were very gorgeous in style 
and workmanship, being covered with velvet, 
and elegantly embroidered, 



830 King Richard II. [A.D.1398. 



Henry is banished from i ngland. 



The assembly waited a long time while the 
king and those with him held a consultation. 
At length the king announced that the combat 
was to proceed no farther, but that both parties 
were deemed guilty, and that they were both to 
be banished from the realm. The term of Hen- 
ry's banishment was ten years ; Norfolk's was 
for life. 

The country was greatly incensed at this de- 
cision. There was no proof whatever that Hen- 
ry had done any thing wrong. Henry, howev- 
er, submitted to the king's decree, apparently 
without murmuring, and took his departure. 
As he journeyed toward Dover, where he was 
to embark, the people flocked around him at all 
the towns and villages that he passed through, 
and mourned his departure ; and when finally 
he embarked at Dover and went away, they 
said that the only shield, defense, and comfort 
of the commonwealth was gone. 

Henry went to Paris, and there told his story 
to the King of France. The king took his part 
very decidedly. He received him in a very 
cordial and friendly manner, and condemned 
the course which Richard had pursued. 

Another circumstance occurred to alienate 
the King of France still more from Richard. 
There was a certain French lady, named De 



A.D.1398.] The Deposition. 331 

Case of Lady De Courcy. Her dismissal from office. 

Courcy, who had come from France with the 
little queen, and had since occupied a high po- 
sition in the queen's household. She was Isa- 
bella's governess and principal lady of honor. 
This lady, it seemed, lived in quite an expens- 
ive style, and by her influence and manage- 
ment greatly increased the expense of the 
queen's establishment, which was, of course, en- 
tirely independent of that of the king. This 
Lady De Courcy kept eighteen horses for her 
own personal use, and maintained a large train 
of attendants to accompany her in state when- 
ever she appeared in public. She had two or 
three goldsmiths and jewelers, and two or three 
furriers, and a proportionate number of other 
artisans all the time at work, making her dress- 
es and decorations. Eichard, under pretense 
that he could not afford all this, dismissed the 
Lady De Courcy from her office, and sent her 
home to France. Of course she was very in- 
dignant at this treatment, and she set out on 
her return home, prepared to give the King of 
France a very unfavorable account of his son- 
in-law. It was some time after this, however, 
before she arrived at Paris. 

About three months after Henry of Boling- 
broke was banished from the realm, his father, 
the Duke of Lancaster, died. He left immense 



332 



King Eichard II. 



Richard seizes his cousin Henry's estates. 



estates, winch of right should have descended 
to his son. Eichard had given Henry leave to 
appoint an attorney to act as his agent during 
his banishment, and take care of his property ; 
but, instead of allowing this attorney to take 
possession of these estates, and hold them for 
Henry until he should return, the king confis- 
cated them, and seized them himself. He also, 
at the same time, revoked the powers which he 
had granted to the attorney. This transaction 
awakened one general burst of indignation from 
one end of England to the other, and greatly 
increased the hatred which the people bore to 
the king, and the favor with which they were 
disposed to regard Henry. 

It must be admitted, in justice to Eichard, 
that his mind was greatly harassed at this time 
with the troubles and difficulties that surround- 
ed him, and with his want of money. To com- 
plete his misfortunes, a rebellion broke out in 
Ireland. He felt compelled to go himself and 
quell it. So he collected all the money that he 
could obtain, and raised an army and equipped 
a fleet to go across the Irish Sea. He left his 
uncle, the Duke of York, regent during his ab- 
sence. 

Before setting out for Ireland, the king went 
to Windsor to bid the little queen good-by. He 



The Deposition. 333 

Ireland. Richard's farewell to the little queen. 

took his leave of her in a church at Windsor, 
where she accompanied him to mass. On leav- 
ing the church after service, he partook of wine 
and refreshments with her at the door, and then 
lifting her up in his arms, he kissed her many 
times, saying, 

"Adieu, madame. Adieu till we meet again." 
As soon as Richard was gone, a great number 
of the leading and influential people began to 
form plans to keep him from coming back again, 
or at least to prevent his ever again ruling over 
the realm. Henry, who was now in Paris, and 
who, since his father was dead, was now him- 
self the Duke of Lancaster, began to receive let- 
ters from many persons urging him to come to 
England, and promising him their support in 
dispossessing Richard of the throne. 

Henry determined at length to comply with 
these proposals. He found many persons in 
France to encourage him, and some to join him. 
With these persons, not more, it is said, than 
sixty in all, he set sail from the coast of France, 
and, passing across the Channel, approached the 
coast of England. He touched at several places, 
to ascertain what was the feeling of the country 
toward him. At length he was encouraged to 
land. The people received him joyfully, and 
every body flocked to his standard. 



334 King Eichakd II. [A.D.1399. 

A rebellion. Misfortunes of the king. 

The Duke of York, whom Eichard had left 
as regent, immediately called a council of Eich- 
ard's friends to consider what it was best to do. 
On consultation and inquiry, they found that 
the country would not support them in any plan 
for resisting Henry. So they abandoned Eich- 
ard's cause at once in despair, and fled in vari- 
ous directions, intent only on saving their own 
lives. 

The Duke of York went to Windsor Castle, 
took the queen and her attendants, and convey- 
ed them up the river to the Castle of Walling- 
ford, where he thought they would be more safe. 

In the mean time, the king's expedition to 
Ireland resulted disastrously, and he returned 
to England. To his utter dismay, he learned, 
on his arrival, that Henry had landed in En- 
gland, and was advancing toward London in a 
triumphant manner. He had no sufficient force 
under his command to enable him to go and 
meet his cousin with any hope of success. The 
only question was how he could save himself 
from Henry's vengeance. He dismissed the 
troops that remained with him, and then, with 
a very few attendants to accompany him, he 
sought refuge for a while among the castles in 
Wales, where he was reduced to great destitu- 
tion and distress, being forced sometimes to sleep 



The Deposition. 335 

Conway Castle. The king is made prisoner. 

on straw. At length he went to Conway, which 
is a town near the northern confines of Wales, 
and shut himself up in the castle there — that 
famous Conway Castle, the ruins of which are 
so much visited and admired by the tourists of 
the present day. 

In the mean time, Henry, although he had 
marched triumphantly through England at the 
head of a large, though irregular force, had not 
proclaimed himself king, or taken any other 
open step inconsistent with his allegiance to 
Richard. But now, when he heard that Rich- 
ard was in Wales, he went thither himself at 
the head of quite a large army which he had 
raised in London. He stopped at a town in 
North Wales called Flint, and, taking his lodg- 
ings there, he sent forward an earl as his mes- 
senger to Conway Castle to treat with Richard. 
The earl, on being introduced into Richard's 
presence, said that his cousin was at Flint Cas- 
tle, and wished that he would come there to 
confer with him on matters of great moment. 
Richard did not know what to do. He soon 
reflected, however, that he was completely in 
Henry's power, and that he might as well make 
a virtue of necessity, and submit with a good 
grace ; so he said he would accompany the ear] 
to Flint Castle. 



336 King Eichaed II 

His interview with Henry at the castle in Wales. 

They had not gone far on the road before a 
large number* of armed men appeared at the 
road side, in a narrow place between the mount- 
ains and the sea, where they had been lying in 
ambush. These men were under the earl's com- 
mand. Little was said, but Eichard saw that 
he was a prisoner. 

On his arrival at Flint Castle,* Eichard had 
an interview with Henry. Henry, when he 
came into the king's presence, treated him with 
all due reverence, as if he still acknowledged 
him as his sovereign. He kneeled repeatedly 
as he advanced, until at length the king took 
him by the hand and raised him up, saying, at 
the same time, 

" Dear cousin, you are welcome." 

Henry replied, 

" My sovereign lord and king, the cause of my 
coming at this time is to have again the restitu- 
tion of my person, my lands, and my heritage, 
through your majesty's gracious permission." 

The king replied, 

" Dear cousin, I am ready to accomplish your 
will, so that you may enjoy all that is yours 
without exception." 

* There is some discrepancy in the accounts in respect 
to the castle where this interview was had, but this is not 
saaterial. 



The Deposition. 337 

/ — — — ■ 

The king is conveyed a prisoner to London. 

After some farther insincere and hypocritical 
conversation of this sort, breakfast was served. 
After breakfast, Henry conducted the king to 
a window on the wall, from which, on looking 
over the plain, a vast number of armed men, 
who had come from London with Henry, were 
to be seen. Kichard asked who those men 
were. Henry replied that they were people of 
London. 

"And what do they want?" asked Eichard. 

" They want me to take you" said Henry, 
"and carry you prisoner to the Tower; and 
there will be no pacifying them unless you go 
with me." 

Richard saw at once that it was useless to 
make any resistance, so he submitted himself 
entirely to such arrangements as Henry might 
make. Henry accordingly set out with him on 
the journey to London, ostensibly escorting him 
as a king, but really conveying him as a pris- 
oner. On the journey, the fallen monarch suf- 
fered many marks of neglect and indignity, but 
he knew that he was wholly in the power of 
his enemies, and that it was useless to complain ; 
indeed, his spirit was completely broken, and 
he had no heart to make even a struggle. On 
reaching London, he was conducted to the Tow- 
er. He was lodged there as he had often been 

Y 



838 King Eichard II. 

Parliament convened. Charges preferred against the king. 

lodged before, only now the guards which sur- 
rounded him were under the command of his 
enemies, and were placed there to prevent his 
escape, instead of to protect him from danger. 

Henry immediately convened a Parliament, 
issuing the writs, however, in the king's name. 
This was necessary, to make the Parliament 
technically legal. When the Parliament met, 
articles of accusation were formally brought 
against Eichard. These articles were thirty- 
three in number. They recapitulated all the 
political crimes and offenses which Eichard had 
committed during his life, his cruelties and op- 
pressions, his wastefulness, his mal- administra- 
tion of public affairs, the illegal and unjust sen- 
tences of banishment or of death which he had 
pronounced upon peers of the realm, and vari- 
ous other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

While these measures were pending, Eich- 
ard's mind was in a state of dreadful suspense 
and agitation. Sometimes he sank into the 
greatest depths of despondency and gloom, and 
sometimes he raved like a madman, walking to 
and fro in his apartment in his phrensy, vowing 
vengeance on his enemies. 

He had interviews from time to time with 
Henry and the other nobles. At one time Hen- 
ry went with the Duke of York and others to 



A.D.1399.] The Deposition. 339 

Interview between Richard and Henry in the Tower. 

the Tower, and sent a messenger to the king, 
requesting him to come to the apartment where 
they were, as they wished to see him. 

"Tell Henry of Lancaster," said the king, 
" that I shall do no such thing. If he wishes 
to see me, let him come to me." 

So they came to the king's apartment. Hen- 
ry took off his cap as he came in, and saluted 
the king respectfully. The Duke of York was 
with Henry at this time. Eichard was very 
angry with the Duke of York, whom he had 
left regent of England when he went away, but 
who had made no resistance to Henry's inva- 
sion. So, as soon as he saw him, he broke forth 
in a perfect phrensy of vituperation and rage 
against him, and against his son, who was also 
present. This produced a violent altercation 
between them and the king, in which one of 
them told the king that he lied, and threw down 
his bonnet before him in token of defiance. 
Eichard then turned to Henry, and demanded, 
in a voice of fury, why he was placed thus in 
confinement, under a guard of armed men. 

"Am I your servant," he demanded, "or 
am I your king ? And what do you intend to 
do with me ?" 

" You are my king and lord," replied Henry, 
calmly, "but the Parliament have determined 



340 



King Kiohakd II. 



Rage of Richard. 



Portrait of Henry. 



that you are to be kept in confinement for the 
present, until they can decide in respect to the 
charges laid against you." 

Here the king uttered a dreadful imprecation, 
expressive of rage and despair. 

He then demanded that, they should let him 
have his wife. But Henry replied that the 
council had forbidden that he should see the 




HENRY OF BOLINQBROKE— KING HENRY IV. 



The Deposition. 343 

The king is compelled to abdicate the crown. 



queen. This exasperated the king more than 
ever. He walked to and fro across the apart- 
ment, wringing his hands, and uttering wild and 
incoherent expressions of helpless rage. 

The end of it was that Richard was forced to 
abdicate the crown. He soon saw that it was 
only by so doing that he could hope to save his 
life. An assembly was convened, and he for- 
mally delivered up his crown, and renounced 
all claim 'to it forever. He also gave up the 
globe and sceptre, the emblems of sovereignty, 
with which he had been invested at his corona- 
tion. In addition to this ceremony, a written 
deed of abdication had been drawn up, and 
this deed was now signed by the king with all 
the necessary formalities. Proclamation having 
been made of Richard's abdication, Henry came 
forward and claimed the crown as Richard's 
rightful successor, and he was at once proclaim- 
ed king, and conducted to the throne. Rich- 
ard was conducted back to the Tower, and soon 
afterward was conveyed, by Henry's order, to 
a more sure place of confinement — Pontefract 
Castle, and here was shut up a close prisoner. 

Things remained in this state a short time, 
and then a rumor arose that a conspiracy was 
formed by Richard's friends to murder Henry, 
and restore Richard to the throne, A spiked 



344 King Richard II [AJX1399. 

Henry desires that Richard should be killed. 

instrument was said to have been found in Hen- 
ry's bed, put there by some of the conspirators, 
with a view of destroying him when he lay 
down. Whether this story of the conspiracy 
was false or true, one thing is certain, that the 
existence of Richard endangered greatly the 
continuance and security of Henry's power. 
Henry and his counselors were well aware of 
this ; and one day, when they had been con- 
versing on the subject of this danger, Henry 
said, 

" Have I no faithful friend who will deliver 
me from this man, whose life is death to me, 
and whose death would be my life?" 

Very soon after this, it was known that Rich- 
ard was dead. The universal belief was that 
he was murdered. There were various rumors 
in respect to the manner in which the deed was 
perpetrated. The account most precise and 
positive states that a man named Exton, who 
had heard the remark of the king, repaired at 
once to the castle of Pontefract, accompanied by 
eight desperate men, all well armed, and gained 
admission to Richard's room while he was at 
table. Richard, seeing his danger, sprang up, 
and attempted to defend himself. He wrench- 
ed a weapon out of the hands of one of his as- 
sailants, and fought with it so furiously that 



A.D.1399.] Kichard's Death. 345 

Assassination of Richard. Disposal of the body. 

he cut down four of the ruffians before he was 
overpowered. He was felled to the floor at 
last by a blow which Exton struck him upon 
his head, Exton having sprung up upon the 
chair which Richard had sat in, and thus ob- 
tained an advantage by his high position. 

It was necessary to make the fact of Rich- 
ard's death very certain, and so, soon afterward, 
the body was placed upon a hearse, and drawn 
by four black horses to London. Here it was 
left in a public place for some time, to be view- 
ed by all who desired to view it. There were 
no less than twenty thousand persons that' avail- 
ed themselves of the opportunity of satisfying 
themselves, by the evidence of their senses, that 
the hated Richard was no more. 

The little queen all this time had been con- 
fined in another castle. She was now about 
twelve years old. Her father, when he heard 
of the misfortunes which had befallen her hus- 
band, and of the forlorn and helpless condition 
in which she was placed, was so distressed that 
he became insane. The other members of the 
family sent to England to demand that she 
should be restored to them, but Henry refused 
this request. He wished to make her the wife 
of his son, who was now the Prince of Wales, 



346 King Eichard II. [A.D.1399. 

The little queen. Her return to France. 

but Isabella would not listen to any such pro- 
posals. Then Henry wished that she should 
remain in England as the queen-dowager, and 
he promised that she should be treated with the 
greatest respect and consideration as long as she 
lived ; but neither she herself nor her friends in 
France would consent to this. At length, after 
long delay, and many protracted negotiations, 
it was decided that she should return home. 

The little queen, on her return to France, 
embarked from Dover. There were five ves- 
sels appointed to receive her and her suite. 
There were in attendance upon her two ladies 
of the royal family, who had the charge of her 
person, her governess, several maids of honor, 
and two French chambermaids, whose names 
were Semonette and Marianne. There were 
many other persons besides. 

Isabella reached the French frontier at a town 
between Calais and Boulogne, and there was 
delivered, with much form and ceremony, to a 
deputation of French authorities sent forward 
to receive her. 

She lived in France after this for several 
years, mourning her husband all the time with 
faithful and unchanging affection. At length 
a marriage was arranged for her with her cous- 
in ? a French prince. She was married when 



A.D.1399.] Richard's Death. 347 

Sequel of the story of the little queen. 

she was nineteen years old. She was very 
averse to this marriage when it was first pro- 
posed to her, and could only speak of it with 
tears ; but, under all the circumstances of the 
case, she thought that she was not at liberty to 
decline it, and after she was married she loved 
her husband very sincerely, and made a very 
devoted and faithful wife. Three years after 
her marriage she had a son, and a few hours 
after the birth of the child she suddenly died. 
Her husband was almost distracted when he 
heard that his beloved wife was dead. His 
grief seemed, for a time, perfectly uncontrol- 
lable ; but when they brought to him his in- 
fant child, it seemed in some measure to com° 
fort him. 



The End. 






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